Journalism/Ukraine: Ex-President Charged In Journalist’s Murder
The Financial Times, www.ft.com
US lawyer to assist Kuchma defenceBy Roman Olearchyk in Kiev , Published: March 28 2011 02:46
Leonid Kuchma, the former Ukrainian president who was charged last week by prosecutors in connection with the murder of a journalist in 2000, has hired Alan Dershowitz, the prominent US-based criminal defence lawyer, to his legal team. Mr Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor, is known for his involvement in high-profile criminal cases. He has made headlines in the US representing celebrities and advised on the defence of OJ Simpson. “I look forward to contributing my experience as a defence lawyer and specialist on forensic evidence to this case,” said Mr Dershowitz in a statement circulated by a spokesman for Mr Kuchma. “I am especially committed to the search for truth in this case.” Last Thursday, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Mr Kuchma, president from 1994 to 2005, with “exceeding his authority, which led to the death” of the journalist Georgy Gongadze.
Critical in his reporting of Mr Kuchma’s administration, Gongadze was abducted and killed in 2000. Three police officers were convicted in 2008 of taking part in the murder. Investigators are now seeking to show which senior officials may have given orders to carry out the crime. A police general is currently awaiting trial. People close to the investigation say he has given testimony implicating Mr Kuchma, president at the time, and Yuriy Kravchenko, the former interior minister who was found dead in 2005 with two gunshot wounds to his head. Journalists’ rights advocates in and outside Ukraine have accused Kiev of conducting a cover-up. The case has grown to symbolise widespread corruption and institutionalised impunity for Ukraine’s political and business elite. If charged with ordering the murder or complicity, Mr Kuchma would be one of only a few rulers of former Soviet republics to stand trial in a region where authoritarian and corrupt leadership are common. For the first time in the investigation, prosecutors announced last Tuesday that Mr Kuchma was a suspect. He has long denied involvement and claims to have been set up. Mr Kuchma was implicated in the murder by secret audio recordings allegedly made by a presidential bodyguard. A senior prosecutor said last Tuesday that the recordings figure as “material evidence”.In the statement, Mr Dershowitz challenged the reliability of the recordings, saying it was “relatively easy to change words on a digital recording to create guilty-sounding statements. Parts can be deleted, copied, pasted and altered”.
Financial Times
Editorial Comment
Kuchma charged
Published: March 27 2011 22:43
It has taken 11 years, but last week’s charging of Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s former president, in connection with the murder of the journalist Georgy Gongadze is a big step. The importance for Ukraine and today’s president Viktor Yanukovich – who says he wants to bring the country closer to the European Union – of satisfactorily solving the gruesome case is difficult to overstate.
The body of Gongadze, an investigative reporter often critical of Mr Kuchma’s presidency, was found beheaded in woods outside Kiev in late 2000. His family and journalists’ groups have have long suspected Mr Kuchma’s involvement, which he has denied. A transparent, fairly conducted trial allowing the former president to clear his name or be properly convicted could bring justice, and closure to a case that has haunted Ukraine for a decade. That could be particularly powerful in a country where the rule of law is feeble even by former Soviet standards, dominated by a shady oligarchic capitalism. There are, sadly, strong reasons to doubt such an outcome. Mr Kuchma may face further counts – he is so far charged only with “exceeding his authority” – but the 10-year statute of limitations on most crimes has expired. So the former president, even if found guilty of involvement, could escape jail, though prosecutors say courts can cancel the time limit. Yulia Tymoshenko, former premier and Mr Yanukovich’s foe, alleges the Kuchma case is a “bluff” to deflect criticism from the current government’s selective legal pursuit of her and several of her officials. Some speculate business backers of Mr Yanukovich may be using the case to pressure Mr Kuchma’s tycoon son-in-law. The case has risks for Mr Yanukovich, put forward as a presidential candidate in 2004, when alleged vote-rigging sparked the Orange Revolution, by some of Mr Kuchma’s backers. Prosecutors are considering as evidence tape recordings which, though never fully authenticated, appear to implicate the former president. Finding out who produced them is critical to getting to the truth. Yet the conduct of a proper trial would strengthen Mr Yanukovich’s claim to be determined to combat corruption and push through economic reforms. It could also help address criticisms that he has eroded democratic freedoms since coming to power a year ago. If he is serious about adopting European values, he has much work ahead. The case will be closely watched, in the EU and US too.
New York Times
WORLD BRIEFING EUROPE
Ukraine: Ex-Leader Is Charged in Journalist’s Killing
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
25 March 2011
Late Edition – Final
Former President Leonid D. Kuchma was officially charged Thursday in connection with the murder of a prominent investigative journalist. Though the precise nature of the charges remains unclear, prosecutors announced this week that Mr. Kuchma was suspected of ordering the 2000 murder of the journalist, Georgy Gongadze. Mr. Kuchma, whose decade as president was known for widespread corruption and political violence, could be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison if convicted, the Ukrainian media reported. Earlier, he said he was prepared to ”go through all the tortures of hell” to prove his innocence
Ukraine ex-president suspected in journalist murder AFP – Ukraine’s deputy Prosecutor-General Renat Kuzmin holds documents prior to his press conference in … by Anya Tsukanova
KIEV (AFP) – Ukraine opened a murder case Tuesday (last week) against ex-president Leonid Kuchma over the shocking 2000 beheading of journalist Georgy Gongadze in what became the most notorious crime in its post-Soviet history.The announcement by prosecutors came after years of pressure from Kuchma’s opponents for the former president to face trial over the brutal killing of the critical journalist and founder of the Ukrainska Pravda newssite.”A criminal case has been opened against Leonid Kuchma. He is suspected of implication in the murder of Georgy Gongadze,” deputy prosecutor general Renat Kuzmin told reporters.He added that Kuchma, president from 1994-2005, was now banned from leaving Ukraine amid the criminal investigation.Kuchma’s office confirmed that the former leader would appear at the prosecutor’s office for questioning at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) Wednesday, but refused to answer any other questions about the case.
Pressed repeatedly by reporters, the prosecutor stopped short of saying Kuchma was suspected of personally masterminding the murder. He said only that “Kuchma is now suspected of abuse of power and giving illegal orders to interior ministry employees that led to the death of the journalist”. The anti-Kuchma opposition at the time implicated the ex-president in the crime, pointing to tapes unearthed in 2000 where voices alleged to be of Kuchma and ex-interior minister Yury Kravchenko evoked eliminating Gongadze. The tapes — allegedly recorded in Kuchma’s office by one of his bodyguards Mykola Melnichenko — contain a voice resembling that of Kuchma suggesting to have Gongadze “kidnapped by Chechens”.
The tapes caused a sensation after they were made public by Socialist Party leader Olexander Moroz in 2000 and sparked mass demonstrations in the country calling for Kuchma’s resignation.In a major development, Kuzmin said that the tapes were now recognised as valid evidence in the case. Kuchma has always denied any involvement and the authenticity of the tapes has never been confirmed.Gongadze was kidnapped in September 2000 after leaving a friend’s apartment in Kiev.The authorities are holding in custody former Ukrainian interior ministry official Olexy Pukach, who was arrested in 2009 and confessed to personally strangling the journalist with his belt, then beheading him with an axe.In September 2010 prosecutors appeared to draw a line under the case by saying that Kravchenko — who committed suicide in 2005 — ordered the murder. Given that Kravchenko took his evidence to the grave, the move prompted accusations from Gongadze’s family that the authorities were seeking to pin all the blame on a dead man to protect someone of greater importance.
The probe took commentators by surprise, with some suspecting the idea was a media stunt aimed at ultimately whitewashing Kuchma and ending the years of accusations against him.”It’s more a PR operation rather than a real inquiry,” Volodymyr Fesenko, one of Ukraine’s leading political analysts, told AFP. “The outcome at the end could fully suit Leonid Kuchma.”Kuchma was president during the 2004 Orange Revolution uprising that forced the annulment of rigged presidential elections and a re-run which was won by liberal pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko. He tried to remain neutral during those convulsions although liberals suspected him of siding with the losing pro-Kremlin candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych defeated the Orange Revolution leaders in 2010 presidential elections and the authorities have since opened criminal probes against some of his pro-Western opponents, including former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
