Ukraine: Former Ukraine president Leonid Kuchma, suspected by rivals in connection with the murder of an investigative journalist, returned home over the weekend after an interior minister linked to the case committed suicide.
Mr Kuchma's rivals have linked him to the murder in 2000 of Georgiy Gongadze but no conclusive evidence has been produced and Mr Kuchma maintains his innocence.
New president Viktor Yushchenko said this week, before the suicide of the former interior minister, that the Gongadze case had been solved.
He accused Mr Kuchma's administration of trying to cover up for the perpetrators and said closing the investigation was a matter of "personal honour".
Officials said former interior minister Yuri Kravchenko had shot himself twice on Friday and left a note describing himself as "a victim of the intrigues of Kuchma and his entourage".
Mr Kuchma declined to speak to reporters after arriving at Kiev airport from a holiday in the Czech Republic.
"I said everything I had to say yesterday," he said before being driven away.
He said on Friday in the Czech resort of Karlovy Vary: "Before God, before the people, I have a clear conscience."
Head of Ukraine's SBU security service Oleksander Turchinov said Mr Kravchenko had failed to kill himself with an initial shot and had then fired a second time to the temple. The handwritten note found on the victim, he said, confirmed the theory of suicide.
Mr Kuchma was linked to the journalist's murder by a former bodyguard who fled Ukraine with tapes recorded secretly in his office. In one excerpt, a voice similar to Mr Kuchma's was heard giving an order to "deal with" Gongadze, a critic of Kuchma and top businessmen. - (Reuters)