You're reading: Prosecutor: Kuchma abused power, but didn’t order murder

Adding even more confusion to the sad saga of the unsolved Sept. 16, 2000, murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, General Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka said that former President Leonid Kuchma is not suspected of ordering the murder.

But the former leader is suspected of “exceeding his authority” as president in giving orders that led to the journalist’s death.
His remarks only raised more fears of a continuing cover-up.

“In the end, the investigation came to the conclusion that the responsibility for this event should be laid upon the former head of the Interior Ministry [Yuriy Kravchenko] and former President [Leonid Kuchma],” Pshonka said in a May 28 interview with the Zerkalo Nedeli weekly. “Kuchma had no intent for the end result of this tragedy.”

Kravchenko died of two gunshot wounds to the head on March 4, 2005. Authorities called them self-inflicted but his death remains suspicious. Kuchma, meanwhile, left power in 2005 after a decade of rule.

According to prosecutors, Kuchma might be convicted of a crime yet face no punishment unless the court waives the statute of limitations. In such an event, authorities say Kuchma could get up to 12 years in prison.

However, Pshonka didn’t bother explaining the contradiction between the conclusion that Kuchma is responsible yet also had no intent on murder.

The prosecutor general also did not provide any details of exactly what role Kuchma is suspected of having in the beheaded journalist’s kidnapping and brutal murder.

So, according to prosecutors, Kuchma might be convicted of a crime yet face no punishment unless the court waives the statute of limitations. In such an event, authorities say Kuchma could get up to 12 years in prison.

The prosecutors base their evidence partly on the tapes recorded by Kuchma’s former bodyguard, Mykola Melnychenko, in 2000. “Take care of him,” a voice resembling Kuchma’s said on a recording dated June 12, 2000. In another recording, Kuchma reportedly said of Gongadze: “We need some Chechens to kidnap him for ransom.”

Kuchma and senior officials in his administration have long been suspected by critics and Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava, of playing a role in the murder and the subsequent cover-up.

Valentyna Telychenko, lawyer of Gongadze’s widow Myroslava, said prosecutors are not interested in bringing Kuchma to justice. Telychenko has been studying the materials of the case for two months, but has not yet been shown the investigators’ document detailing the official charges against Kuchma.

“In my opinion, the prosecutor’s office did not and still does not intend to establish the truth, to show who ordered the murder, and does not think Kuchma ordered it,” Telychenko said. “A negligently conducted investigation may end in acquittal of the ex-president.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected]