You're reading: Kuchma charged in Gongadze’s slaying (updated)

President Leonid Kuchma has been charged in the Sept. 16, 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

Yury Boychenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s prosector’s office, confirmed the charges: “Yes, investigators have today charged Kuchma … on exceeding authority, which led to the death (not murder) of Mr Gongadze. his is the preliminary charge. Further investigations are ahead. It is too early to say what the final charges will be. The investigation is still ongoing.”

After emerging from a session with prosecutors, Kuchma said: “I have been charged. I have not read [the charges] from the beginning to the end. You won’t believe it. There’s nothing new. That what was said by the deputy prosecutor [Renat Kuzmin] at the press conference [on March 22.] That’s it.” Kuchma said will return to the prosecutor’s office on Monday for more questioning.

The charges are the first official allegations that tie Kuchma to ordering the abduction and beating death of Gongadze, whose hard-hitting reporting irritated Ukraine’s second president, who served from1994-2005.

Three former Interior Ministry police officers have been convicted in the murder. The officers’ former supervisor, ex-Interior Ministry General Oleksiy Pukach, has been jailed and charged with the killing as well after reportedly confessing to the crime. Moreover, Pukach’s boss – former Interior Ministry General Yuriy Kravchenko – was killed on March 4, 2005 from two gunshot wounds to the head.

Officials say Kravchenko committed suicide after writing a note that declared himself a victim of Kuchma intrigues.

Kuchma made the remarks to journalists after leaving the Main Investigative Department of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office for the second questioning as a suspect in the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze.

Kuchma dismissed all the charges by the Prosecutor General’s Office and refused to undergo face-to-face interrogation with former major of Ukrainian State Guard Department Mykola Melnychenko.

“I was given an order on the institution of criminal proceedings… Absolutely no new evidence has come out,” Kuchma also said.

The ex-president refused to undergo a face-to-face interrogation with former bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko. “I think he is a traitor,” Kuchma told reporters.

If found guilty of abuse of office, Kuchma may be imprisoned from five to 12 years and barred from occupying certain positions. So far, Kuchma is released on his own recognizance and is barred from leaving Ukraine.