Who Wants to Rescue Borys Derevyanko's Murderers?
Documents from year-long inquiry cleaned up in official offices
Last Thursday an Odesa court was to pass judgment in the Derevyanko
murder case. But mysteriously erased police video footage has already made
this trial a farce.
Last week marked the second anniversary of a tragic death of Kievskie
Vedomosti correspondent Petro Shevchenko. The case remains unsolved.
A number of newspapers had to close down after being sued and exorbitant
judgments against them. And how many beatings, threats, and other harassment
do Ukrainian journalists suffer daily in the line of duty? It seems like
the executive and judiciary have joined forces with criminal structures
against the press, with only the legislature from time to time thinking
about journalists.
On Wednesday, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Freedom
of Expression and Information Ivan Chyzh announced that the Committee intends
to legislatively limit the maximum reimbursement amount for lawsuits against
newspapers to 2% of annual profit, for editorial offices, and 100 minimum
salaries, for individual journalists. Criminal liability will also be envisioned
for harassment of the media.
While artists and sculptors worked to immortalize the memory of the
Vecherniaya Odessa editor, who was shot dead by a contract killer
on his way to work on August 11, 1997, the city suddenly became rife with
rumors: the criminal case of those arrested for the murder is on the verge
of falling apart. A number of documents irretrievable to the judicial investigation
have vanished without a trace, and the accused have recanted their previous
testimony.
The very first interrogations of the defendants at the trial presided
over by Yuri Pohorily confirmed: the prison telegraph does not bluff. Three
of the five charged with the killing announced their previous evidence
had allegedly been obtained by illegal methods.
Stop! Was there not a video-taped confession by, say, "brigade leader"
Oleksandr Hlek given in the presence of lawyer Pyatyhorets and criminal
prosecutor of the Prosecutor General's Office Maniskevych? The defendants
did not object to watching the video cassettes at the trial. However, the
video-taped interrogations, seizure of firearms and the defendant Hlek's
acting-out of the murder on location, done with due account of all procedural
requirements, turned out to have been carefully erased. And it is far from
easy to establish where and by whom the five tapes were "cleaned up" in
one of the cozy rooms of the oblast prosecutor's office or the oblast court.
The point is the 15 volumes of the murder case, including documentary video-tapes,
"traveled" three times last year from the prosecutor's office to the court
and the other way round: the servants of Themis insisted the case be further
investigated.
Making sure during the trial that the interrogation tapes were missing,
the defendants bet the farm, as they put it: they pleaded not guilty and
said the previous evidence had been given "under duress," so only their
current testimony should be regarded as valid.
Asked by The Day, Odesa mayor Ruslan BODELAN commented
on the situation concerning the loss of documents: "The fact is simply
terrible. I lack adequate words. It is absolutely unclear to me how it
could have happened in the investigation offices or court. What I am absolutely
convinced in is: all this was done intentionally. But, on the other hand,
there are specific officials responsible for the safety of documents in
the oblast prosecutor's office or court. And it is completely beyond understanding
why nobody has so far been punished for the loss of the documents. I want
to remind you: immediately after the murder of Boris Derevyanko I said
I had no doubts the crime had been contracted for and the Vecherniaya
Odessa editor 'liquidated' for political reasons. And nobody will convince
me to the contrary."
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada's Auditing Office Valentyn SYMONENKO,
who knew Mr. Derevyanko personally, expressed an opinion in a conversation
with our correspondent that the journalist had been killed because he intended
to run for mayor.
By Mykhailo AKSANIUK, The Day
INCIDENTALLY
Murderer of Vecherniaya Odessa
Editor Sentenced to Death
On March 18 the Odesa oblast court collegium presided over by Yuri
Pohorely, which has been investigating for six months the murder of Borys
Derevianko, editor of the newspaper Vecherniaya Odessa, on August 11, 1997,
has found Aleksandr Glek, 42, citizen of the Republic of Moldova, guilty
of a contract killing and sentenced him to execution by firing squad. Glek's
defense attorney Mykola Bondar, member of the oblast bar association, told
The Day's Mykhailo Aksaniuk that he considers the sentence ill-founded
and intends to file an appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine.






