14 September 2005
UKRAINE OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE IN JOURNALIST'S MURDER
Powerful political figures in Ukraine who authorised the assassination of investigative reporter Gyorgy Gongadze in 2000 are eluding justice, according to a new report by four journalists' organisations, including the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Published jointly by IFJ, the National Union of Journalists of Great Britain and Ireland, the Gongadze Foundation and the Institute of Mass Information, the report warns that an ongoing investigation into Gongadze's murder continues to be marked by serious negligence.
It points the finger at Ukrainian authorities, who it accuses of steering the investigation away from the powerful organisers of the crime and limiting it to the handful of individuals who took part in the killing.
"The people who authorised the brutal assassination of Gongadze still roam the corridors of power in Kiev," says Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary.
Shortly after the headless body of Gongadze was found in 2000, tapes made by a bodyguard of former president Leonid Kuchma, on which the president and other ministers could be heard planning to harm Gongadze, were leaked to the press.
The investigation has established that Gongadze was killed by a group of serving interior ministry officers, some of whom are expected to be tried shortly. But the leader of the group, General Olexiy Pukach, has disappeared. Former interior minister Yuri Kravchenko, a key witness, died in mysterious circumstances in 2004.
At the same time, the Ukrainian general prosecutor has failed to examine the links between the case and the operation of death squads within the interior ministry. He has also failed to convince a court to accept the Kuchma tapes as evidence.
Read the full report here: http://www.ifj.org/pdfs/gongadze2.pdf
(Photo of Gyorgy Gongadze)
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