Prosecutors are completing the pre-trial investigation in a criminal case against Oleksiy Pukach, the former head of the external surveillance department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, who is accused of killing journalist Georgy Gongadze, the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) reported on Tuesday.
"A senior investigator for particularly important cases of the Prosecutor General’s Office told all of the victims and their representatives on September 9 this year that a pre-trial investigation is ending in a criminal case accusing Oleksiy Pukach of killing journalist Georgy Gongadze, a crime stipulated by part 2, Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, part 3, Article 166, and paragraphs ‘a’ and ‘i’ of Article 93 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine of 1960, and regarding a person who committed this crime, the deceased [former Ukrainian Interior Minister] Yuriy Kravchenko [in the procedure stipulated by part 3 Article 215 of the Criminal Procedure Code)," the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.
Starting from September 15, 2010, the mother of the deceased journalist, his wife and their lawyer can begin to examine the materials of the case under Article 217 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
Journalist Georgy Gongadze disappeared in Kyiv on September 16, 2000.
