Case opened against Ukrainian ex-president over journalist's murder

PROSECUTORS IN Ukraine are investigating former president Leonid Kuchma for suspected involvement in the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze.

Mr Gongadze strongly criticised Mr Kuchma and his allies for alleged corruption and incompetence before he disappeared from Kiev in September 2000.

His headless body was found in woods outside the city more than a month later, and anger over the case and the apparent impunity enjoyed by top officials fuelled public anger that sparked the 2004 Orange Revolution.

“A criminal case has been opened against Leonid Kuchma. He is suspected of implication in the murder of Georgy Gongadze,” said Ukraine’s deputy prosecutor general Renat Kuzmin.

“Kuchma is now suspected of abuse of power and giving illegal orders to interior ministry employees that led to the death of the journalist,” said Mr Kuzmin. He added that the man who led Ukraine for a decade from 1994 was now banned from leaving the country.

The Gongadze case dogged Mr Kuchma’s second term in office, particularly after one of his former bodyguards fled to the US with what he said were secretly recorded tapes. A man who sounded like Mr Kuchma ordered officials to “deal with” the reporter and suggested that he be “kidnapped by Chechens” on the tapes.

The recordings include a conversation between what sounds like Mr Kuchma and his interior minister, Yuri Kravchenko, discussing how to get rid of Mr Gongadze.

Months after pro-western leaders came to power in Ukraine in 2005 and vowed to find the killers, Mr Kravchenko was found dead at his home with gunshot wounds that police said were self-inflicted.

Rumours persist that he was murdered to prevent him incriminating influential accomplices.

Mr Kuchma has always denied the authenticity of the tapes and rejected allegations of involvement in Mr Gongadze’s murder.

Two former interior ministry officers are serving prison sentences for their role in the killing, and former police general Oleksiy Pukach is awaiting trial.

Last year, investigators announced it was Mr Kravchenko who had ordered subordinates to abduct and murder the journalist.

Some analysts suspect the latest developments are little more than a publicity stunt which will see prosecutors loyal to current president Viktor Yanukovich clear Mr Kuchma’s name, while using the case to deflect domestic and international criticism that they are only using their legal powers to attack opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and her allies.