Melnychenko will not apologize
Former State Security Major Mykola Melnychenko’s second press conference since his return to Ukraine took place in the committee room of the Verkhovna Rada. Unlike the first press conference, this time there were no insults or sound effects.
NO EXCESS
No provocateurs were admitted and there were also no strange-looking people in civilian clothes present. This time Oleksandr Yeliashkevych was not in attendance. The press conference started with a question about his security. “They cynically withdrew Yeliashkevych’s bodyguards,” Melnychenko said indignantly, adding, “I sent a letter to SBU chief Drizhchany, President Yushchenko, and the Prosecutor General. I have operational information to the effect that the bodyguards were recalled in order to physically destroy Yeliashkevych.”
NO REMORSE
Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn was the main hero of the press conference. The ex-major has no intentions of abiding by the court ruling ordering him to offer an apology to Lytvyn; instead, he is preparing an appeal. “I will apologize to the Ukrainian people for Lytvyn being in charge of the highest legislative body,” declared Melnychenko. He also said that he would use every legitimate means to have the court ruling canceled. That week the ex-major’s lawyer Tetiana Montian was preparing the necessary documents to file an appeal. Melnychenko was not present in court, although he very much wanted to be there. No one had informed him about the date, allegedly because they couldn’t find him.
NO FORENSIC EXAMINATION
The major also invited the assembled journalists to listen to another batch of tapes. It was hard to make out the words, but one of the voices sounded like Lytvyn’s. In the first fragment Lytvyn seems to be bringing Kuchma a copy of the newspaper Hrani with Iryna Pohorelova’s article, making it sound as though Lytvyn were the one supplying Kuchma with unpleasant newspaper articles. In the second one the late Yuri Kravchenko is telling Lytvyn how the Chechens cut off hostages’ heads and fingers. “It was Lytvyn who gave instructions to Ihor Storozhuk and Vadym Dolhanov (former managers of First National Channel) on how to present the Gongadze case,” declared Melnychenko. He said he has countless other files. “We see Lytvyn tying the ends of a thick rope in a television campaign commercial, but they don’t show us how he cut that rope before that,” Melnychenko said. According to the ex-major, Lytvyn’s greatest fear is that there will be an international forensic examination of the tapes. “This explains the Verkhovna Rada’s insistent attempts to dispatch Justice Minister Serhiy Holovaty into retirement,” he said, adding that Holovaty is “actively working in that direction.” He also announced that he has visited the General Prosecutor’s Office five times to testify in the Gongadze case, and that he will be asking that the records of his interrogations be made public. “Lesia Gongadze’s lawyers told me that my testimony is enough to charge those who ordered [Gongadze’s murder]. I can name them: Leonid Danylovych Kuchma; Volodymyr Mykhailovych Lytvyn, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada; Derkach — well, Kravchenko left us,” said the ex-major. Melnychenko is convinced that Volodymyr Lytvyn and Vasyl Maliarenko, head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine and no. 5 on the Lytvyn bloc’s slate, “are doing their utmost to help those who ordered the murder in the Gongadze case avoid punishment. In this manner they want to “frame Yushchenko.” Lesia Gongadze’s lawyer Andriy Fedur says the court is trying to drag out the proceedings, and he thinks it’s because the names of both former and current high-ranking officials figure in the case. “I have a lot of questions for Mr. Lytvyn, and I would like to hear his answers in a courtroom,” he added.
NO LONGER UNEMPLOYED
Melnychenko also told the journalists about his health problems. “My blood pressure increased all of a sudden. Strangely, this coincided with the court hearing after Lytvyn filed his complaint,” he added. Melnychenko said that on his lawyer’s insistent advice he immediately visited a private clinic. He is now under medical observation at several hospitals. A diagnosis is pending. However, the ex-major looked quite well. After the press conference it transpired that his employment problem has also been solved. Now he is an assistant to MP Mykola Karnaukh, secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on Corruption and Organized Crime, who was also present at the press conference. Melnychenko has experience in combating corruption, although so far it is difficult to assess the results. On Jan. 26 it was learned that the court hearing in the Gongadze case was postponed until Feb. 1, 2006, because the representatives of the journalist’s widow Myroslava Gongadze were not present in the courtroom. Remarkably, after another recess during the hearing on Tuesday, Mrs. Gongadze’s lawyer Tetiana Telichenko did not appear in the courtroom, but that did not prevent the judge from proceeding with the hearing.
