Security Service Admits to Spying on Gongadze

Investigators have confirmed their findings of suicide behind the death of former Interior Minister General Yuriy Kravchenko. “There is no other explanation but suicide,” Ukraine’s SBU Security Service chief Oleksandr Turchynov told a briefing last week, citing ballistic and forensic test results to support their findings. Speaking about the possible motives behind Kravchenko’s suicide, Turchynov said he could not rule out that “the burden that weighed on him in the last four years forced him to this.”

Oleksandr Turchynov also said that the Security Service of Ukraine was involved in shadowing Heorhiy Gongazde weeks before he disappeared. According to Interfax Ukraine, Turchynov said, “The Security Service was also involved in conducting surveillance on Gongadze. A case was opened as a legal pretext to watch the journalist. The reasons for opening this case were rather questionable.” According to Turchynov, the decision to shadow the journalist was made by the then SBU command. Turchynov pointed out that the SBU stopped shadowing the journalist before his disappearance, and that members of his agency were not involved in the crime. He went on to say that his agency is now assisting the investigation in tracking and detaining suspects.

According to the SBU chief, the court will soon hand down the first verdict in the case of the Ukrainian cruise missiles smuggled to Iran and China. “The court will hand down the first verdict in this case in a few days,” Turchynov said.

Oleksandr Turchynov told the briefing that charges will soon be laid against suspects in the case of illegal tampering with the Central Electoral Commission server during the presidential elections. Mr. Turchynov also expressed certainty that the testimony of the former security guard major, Mykola Melnychenko, made it possible to press charges against those who ordered Gongadze’s killing and against the perpetrators. He also said that during his telephone conversations with Melnychenko he guaranteed him safety on Ukrainian soil.