KYIV, Dec. 12 – The State Customs Service said on Tuesday that they were checking for illegally smuggled diamonds during their examination at Boryspil airport of a videocassette containing testimony on the president’s alleged involvement in the disappearance of opposition journalist Georgy Gongadze, STB TV channel reported.
Georgy Gongadze disappeared in Kyiv in September under mysterious circumstances, and three of Parliament’s lawmakers traveled to Europe last week to videotape a former employee of the president’s security service who gave testimony that he had made recordings of President Leonid Kuchma ordering top aides to sideline the journalist.
State Customs Service employees said that the cassette that they checked contained no recordings, adding that the grounds for examining the cassette was information that contraband diamonds hidden in cassettes would arrive at Boryspil via the same flight boarded by the returning MPs.
Yuri Solovkov, the head of customs service, said that according to information obtained by the customs service, the latter expected attempts to be made to either transport through or bring into Ukraine a large quantity of African diamonds hidden in audio or videocassettes.
The STB channel report said that that customs officials addressed the General Prosecutor’s Office with complaints of the rude behavior of the people’s deputies carrying the videocassette that customs officials examined at the airport.
General Prosecutor Mykhailo Potebenko, while speaking in Parliament, said that the fact that customs officials violated legislation regarding the status of people’s deputies is evident, adding that he believed that those responsible for the incident must answer for their actions.
On Friday, customs officials conducted a search of three MPs who traveled to Europe to videotape the Gongadze-related testimony, taking the videotape in their possession, returning it some time later in damaged condition, according to the statements of the three parliament members.
