Kiev - Ukraine said yesterday it would ask the US government to hand over a former presidential bodyguard whose secret tape recordings sparked Ukraine's biggest political crisis in a decade.
The United States has granted asylum to Mr Mykola Melnychenko, who has been in hiding since he released tapes last year on which a voice similar to President Leonid Kuchma's is heard asking officials to "deal with" journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
Gongadze's headless corpse was found in a wood outside Kiev in November. President Kuchma denies all involvement and says the tapes were doctored. He has accused Mr Melnychenko of being a spy.