Plea rejected for criminal investigation of government officials in Ukrainian journalist's killing
By The Associated Press,
freedomforum.org staff
10.02.01
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(Editor's note: BBC News reported on March 12, 2003, that DNA tests have confirmed that the beheaded body found on Nov. 2, 2000, near Kiev, is that of missing journalist Georgiy Gongadze, who disappeared on Sept. 16, 2000.)
KIEV, Ukraine — The chief prosecutor's office has rejected a plea from the mother of slain Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze that a criminal investigation be open into whether President Leonid Kuchma and other senior government officials figured in the killing.
Gongadze, an Internet newspaper editor, disappeared in Kiev a little more than a year ago. International investigators have concluded that a beheaded body found in the woods near the Ukrainian capital was his.
The pace and inconclusiveness of the official investigation into Gongadze's slaying have stirred protests by international media advocacy organizations. Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontičres last month marked the first anniversary of Gongadze's disappearance by deploring what it called "one year of impunity for journalist Georgiy Gongadze's killers."
Opposition groups in Ukraine staged months of protests in the case, citing recordings said to be made by a former presidential bodyguard and purportedly documenting Kuchma's involvement. Kuchma strongly denies the accusations.
Gongadze's mother, Lesia, last month called on the prosecutor general's office to investigate Kuchma, his administration chief Volodymyr Lytvyn and ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko in the case.
The deputy chief prosecutor, Oleksiy Bahanets, said in a letter to Mrs. Gongadze that investigators have already checked the allegations from the former bodyguard and found them to be false, the Interfax news agency reported.
Last week, investigators from the New York-based investigative company Kroll Associates, hired by a pro-Kuchma political party, said their six-month inquiry showed that Kuchma was not involved in Gongadze's murder. Journalists' organizations protested the Kroll announcement, saying the investigation was incomplete.
The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly recommended last month that the Ukraine conduct a new investigation into the case that would include international experts.
Georgiy Gongadze, 31, edited the Internet newsletter Ukrainska Pravda and was an outspoken critic of the government.
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