You're reading: RIA Novosti: Kuchma suspected of journalist murder

Ukraine's state prosecutor opened a criminal case on Tuesday against former president Leonid Kuchma for his suspected role in the murder of opposition journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000. Georgiy Gongadze, who criticized Kuchma's leadership in the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, disappeared in Kiev on September 16, 2000. His decapitated body was found two months later in a wooded area near the capital. "Leonid Danilovich Kuchma is suspected of power abuse and giving illegal orders to the country's Interior Ministry's officials, which led to the murder of a journalist," first deputy prosecutor Renat Kuzmin said. Read more.