You're reading: Investigator in Kuchma case trying to prevent opening of cases against current witnesses

The investigator in the criminal case opened against second Ukrainian President (1994-2005) Leonid Kuchma is not sure of the results of his work and is making every effort to prevent the injured party achieve the opening of criminal cases against a range of persons who still have a status of witness, Valentyna Telychko, the lawyer of the murdered journalist Georgy Gongadze's wife, Myroslava, has said.

"Officially I have studied about one third of the volumes of the case. As far as I know, there are 99 [volumes]. But I still don’t know which charges were brought against Leonid Kuchma by the prosecutor’s office, as the investigator, by abusing his powers, is making every effort to hide the results of his work," Telychko told Interfax-Ukraine on June 7, commenting on the process of study of the materials of the case against Kuchma by the injured party.

The lawyer noted that the investigator banned her from making copies of the materials of the case and establishing the procedure for studying them on her own.

According to Telychko, the investigator did not allow her to watch a video of a face-to-face meeting of Kuchma with former officer of the State Security Guard of Ukraine, Major Mykola Melnychenko.

She also said that such a practice contradicts the European standards.

"Such conduct by the investigator definitely shows that he himself is not sure of the results of his work, and that he is making every effort so that others, for example, the injured party and their representatives, do not bring [new] results to the investigation, as he then will be forced to issue more charges and open criminal cases against those who currently still have a status of witness," Telychko said.

As reported, a criminal case was opened against Kuchma on March 21, 2011. He is charged with abuse of power and official authority, which subsequently led to the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze (Part 3, Article 166 of the 1960 Criminal Code). Tapes secretly recorded by Kuchma’s former bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko in the president’s office were declared to be material evidence in the case.

The PGO imposed travel restrictions on Kuchma. The PGO also held a face-to-face meeting of Kuchma with Oleksiy Pukach, a former chief of the external surveillance department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, and Melnychenko.

The witnesses in the Kuchma case are Pukach, Melnychenko, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, former Ukrainian Security Service Head Ihor Smeshko, former Ukrainian Presidential Administration Head (2002-2005) Viktor Medvedchuk, and former Ukrainian Premier and former Head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) (1999-2003) Yevhen Marchuk.

The investigation into the criminal case against Kuchma was completed on April 26, and then the injured party started to study the materials of the criminal case.