A small but significant measure of justice came on Jan. 29, more than 12 years later, when former police general Oleksiy Pukach was convicted in the murder – becoming the fourth former police officer found guilty and imprisoned for Gongadze’s horrible death.
But there’s no reason for celebration. The years of cover-up and stonewalling continue today. The inescapable conclusion is that Ukraine’s justice system is still completely manipulated by politicians and prosecutors for their own ends.
Even though Pukach had clearly testified that Kuchma and his then- chief of staff Volodymyr Lytvyn had given the order to kill Gongadze, neither were served with subpoenas to appear in court for questioning. The court’s ruling would have the nation believe that the order to kill Gongadze originated with Pukach’s direct supervisor, Yuriy Kravchenko, the former interior minister who died of two gunshots to the head in 2005. His death was suspiciously ruled a suicide. Kravchenko is now being used in death as a convenient mastermind of the whole plot.
The sentencing of Pukach is the bone that the authorities are trying to throw the public – a cynical message that this is as far as the nation’s top-ranking politicians are willing to let the quest for justice go, at least for now.
Meanwhile Kuchma’s camp is trying hard to save his image. At sentencing, Pukach said that he will understand his life sentence only “when Kuchma and Lytvyn join him.” His assessment became an international sensation. However, at least three national TV channels didn’t show these words – Novyi, STB and ICTV. What do they have in common? They are all owned by Kuchma’s son-in-law, billionaire Viktor Pinchuk. ICTV’s management said they saw no point in reporting the “emotional words of a person, who had just been sentenced to life in prison.”
But no matter how much support Kuchma gets from compliant media and by hiring expensive lawyers and PR spin doctors, nothing will change the fact that the blackest of clouds will forever hover over Kuchma and Lytvyn – even if the earthly quest for justice ends with Pukach and the suspected masterminds never get their day in court.
