You're reading: Kuchma charged in Gongadze’s murder

Prosecutors charged former President Leonid Kuchma with involvement in the gruesome 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, a move greeted by shock and skepticism among critics who have long questioned whether top officials will be punished for alleged involvement in the sensational crime.

Kuchma, 72, on March 24 was charged with exceeding his authority and abuse of power, actions which allegedly led to the journalist’s death. He denied the charges.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office and a lawyer for Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava, said that the statute of limitations on the charge expired last September, meaning that even if convicted he may not face jail time.

“If found guilty by a court ruling, Kuchma will be convicted, but may not face any punishment,” Yuriy Boychenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s office, told the Kyiv Post.

If found guilty by a court ruling, [Leonid] Kuchma will be convicted, but may not face any punishment.”

– Yuriy Boychenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s office.

But if the court decides not to apply the statute of limitations and finds Kuchma guilty of charges that he currently faces, the ex-leader could spend up to 12 years in prison.

Boychenko also said that further charges, possibly even murder, could be added.

“Investigators have today charged Kuchma … on exceeding authority, which led to the death of Gongadze. This is the preliminary charge. Further investigations are ahead. It is too early to say what the final charges will be. The investigation is ongoing,” Boychenko said.

Prosecutors on March 22 announced they had opened a case into Kuchma’s involvement in independent Ukraine’s most notorious crime, sparking life into a decade-long investigation that critics say has long avoided an evidentiary trail leading to Kuchma.

Critics – including Gongadze’s widow and a lawyer representing her – welcomed the surprise news, but raised concerns that Kuchma is accused of abuse of power rather than the more serious charge of murder. This charge appears to have outrun its 10-year statute of limitations.

“The opening of this case is like an earthquake in Ukraine,” the murdered journalist’s wife, Myroslava, said.

“I am just worried that from a formal standpoint, ex-President Kuchma was accused of abuse of power, which led to the murder. He should be accused directly of murder and ordering the murder,” she added.

Theories swirled about why the investigation was now turning on the 72-year-old former leader. Over a decade, prosecutors avoided the issue. Political analysts said the charges could be an attempt to absolve Kuchma of guilt, or to blunt Western criticism that criminal probes into opposition figures are politically motivated.

The opening of this case is like an earthquake in Ukraine. I am just worried that from a formal standpoint, ex-President Kuchma was accused of abuse of power, which led to the murder. He should be accused directly of murder and ordering the murder.”

– Myroslava, Georgiy Gongandze’s widow.

Prosecutors, however, said they are determined to crack the case.

Gongadze, a muckraking journalist and Kuchma critic who founded the Ukrainska Pravda news website, disappeared on Sept. 16, 2000. His headless body was found in woodlands outside Kyiv two months later.

The case exploded into a larger scandal at the end of that year, when opposition lawmaker Oleksandr Moroz made public tapes allegedly made by former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko. On these recordings, a voice that sounds like Kuchma’s talks about having Gongadze kidnapped by Chechens and orders subordinates to “take care of him.”

These tapes have never been authenticated conclusively, but the first deputy prosecutor general, Renat Kuzmin, said they would be considered as “material evidence” in the case against Kuchma.

Three police officers are currently in jail for the murder and a former police general, Oleksiy Pukach, is awaiting trial for the killing.

Prosecutors in September named late former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko as the person who ordered a subordinate to slay Gongadze, in a move critics said looked like an attempt to shield other officials of blame. Kravchenko died from two gunshot wounds to the head on March 4, 2005, shortly before he was due to give evidence to prosecutors. Investigators called his death a suicide.

The decision to open the new investigation came as a bolt from the blue, particularly as many leading figures in the current government rose to prominence under Kuchma, who governed from 1994 to 2005.

President Viktor Yanukovych himself was handpicked as prime minister by Kuchma in 2002.

The announcement of charges against Kuchma was made by Kuzmin at a March 22 press conference.

“Today, Kuchma is suspected of exceeding authority in giving illegal orders to Interior Ministry officials that led, as a result, to the murder of a journalist,” he said.

First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin attends a news conference in Kyiv on March 22. Ukraine’s state prosecutors on March 24 charged Kuchma with abuse of power that led to the death of Georgiy Gongadze in 2000, a far less serious charge than murder. (Yaroslav Debelyi)

Arriving for questioning on March 23, Kuchma vigorously denied the accusations. In the past, he has said the killing of Gongadze was a provocation. He has hinted that foreign powers, including the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, aimed to discredit him. The U.S. has rejected such claims.

Kuchma is barred from leaving Ukraine during the investigation.

Prosecutors have not revealed what evidence they hold against Kuchma, but the fact the Melnychenko tapes will be used as evidence marks a watershed. The hundreds of hours of recordings – allegedly made on a device stuffed behind a sofa in the president’s office – could also bring pressure on other current and former officials.

It could also lead to further investigations into other apparent crimes that are discussed on the tapes by voices that sound like Kuchma and other top officials, including pressuring judges, bribery and fixing elections.

The contradictory and inconsistent behavior of the general prosecutor’s office during the last several years provokes skepticism. There has always been political pressure. Therefore, I do not expect an independent and unbiased pretrial investigation.”

– Valentyna Telychenko, Myroslava Gongadze, the slain journalist’s wife, and her lawyer.

Kuchma and former chief of staff Volodymyr Lytvyn – now parliament speaker – were allegedly caught on tape in 2000 plotting ways to silence Gongadze. Kuchma and Lytvyn have vehemently denied the authenticity of the tapes, but leaked testimony by murder suspect Pukach also allegedly implicates the pair.

Moreover, Pukach’s former lawyer, Oleh Musienko, has said that his one-time client implicated both Kuchma and Lytvyn in the murder and believes they should also stand trial.

Despite the apparent sudden breakthrough after years of stonewalling and rejection by prosecutors of demands to investigate officials above former police chief Kravchenko, critics remain unconvinced that the case will get very far, never mind end in a jail term for Kuchma.

Myroslava Gongadze, the slain journalist’s wife, and her lawyer, Valentyna Telychenko, said they are disappointed that Kuchma is under investigation only for abuse of office, rather than the more serious allegation of murder.

But Hennadiy Moskal, a former police general and now an opposition lawmaker, said prosecutors would need more evidence than the tapes if they wanted to tie Kuchma to the crime.

“[As] Kravchenko is no longer alive, there is no chance of linking Kuchma to the Gongadze murder, because what Kuchma said about Gongadze on the tapes could have been a pure emotional outburst,” he said.

Shockingly for many observers, former presidential bodyguard Melnychenko said he believes Kuchma was set up. “Kuchma became the victim of Lytvyn’s intrigues,” he told the Kyiv Post.

Lytvyn has repeatedly denied involvement in the killing.

The surprise opening of the case left many political observers wondering why Kuchma has suddenly come under prosecutors’ spotlight after so many years.

Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, under investigation along with several allies over accusations of abuse of power, called the opening of the case “bluff and window dressing.” She said it was designed to make Yanukovych, under pressure from the West not to pursue politically-motivated prosecutions of the opposition, seem “just” by also going after his political patron.

Telychenko remains skeptical that Kuchma will face justice, saying it’s “too soon to celebrate” a breakthrough.

“The contradictory and inconsistent behavior of the general prosecutor’s office during the last several years provokes skepticism. There has always been political pressure. Therefore, I do not expect an independent and unbiased pretrial investigation,” she said.

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