A suspicious haste…

On November 21 Pechersky Court of Kyiv will sit in session and examine the comments to the record of the court of the advocate of the former general Oleksii Pukach Hryhorii Demydenko. The Day was informed about it by a victim of Gongadze case, public activist, journalist Oleksii Podolsky.

“The judge Andrii Melnyk phoned me and warned that on November 21 at 11:00 there will be a sitting of Pechersky Court in order to examine the comments to the record of the court of Pukach’s advocate Demydenko,” Podolsky said. “I am going to go to the court and take part in the sitting. However, I am still supposed to get a prolonged access to the state secret (they classified Pukach’s process!). Last time it took one and a half months to get the access. We will see how long it will take this time as they need to have these sittings very quickly. It will also show an unexpected haste. I cannot say what kind of comments Demydenko prepared. I hope to get them at the court.”

We remind our readers that the other day the media published the information that Pukach had been forced to stop reading his case. The corresponding decree was issued by the judge Andrii Melnyk. As is known, the former head of the police surveillance was sentenced to the life imprisonment on January 29 of the current year, but the sentence has not come into force yet. The law allows the convicted to file their comments to the court records. Pukach who read multivolume records three hours a day till November used this norm. His advocate considers the decree to be an impairment of his defendant’s rights and filed a complaint against the judge.

When might the Appeal Court have its sitting and why is there such a haste? “They want to send the case to the Appeal Court as soon as possible,” Podolsky replied. “However, they have to examine all the complaints and comments.”

“I can only assume where all this haste comes from,” the public activist continued. “Why has this issue become burning when solving the questions of the European integration? I can concede that the government is trading with one of the co-heads of the mission of the European Parliament in Ukraine Aleksander Kwasniewski. The latter, as I have repeatedly said, is acting as the advocate of the former president Kuchma. It might happen than Gongadze case will be exchanged for Tymoshenko case: Kuchma will be declared not guilty and Tymoshenko will stay in prison. In my opinion, this is the idea of their trade: giving away Tymoshenko in exchange for Kuchma’s security.”

Taking into account the important role Kwasniewski is playing today in the mission of the European Parliament in Ukraine many people might be surprised with the secret function of this person. What are the arguments? “My assumptions are based on the examples from the contemporary history of Ukraine,” Podolsky says. “Let’s recall the political crisis of 2004 during the Orange Revolution. Who reconciled the conflicting sides? Kwasniewski. It is a well-known example. It is no secret that Kuchma received the guaranties of security and immunity for the period of Yushchenko’s presidential term. At the end of the day it was Yushchenko’s fatal mistake. Everybody knows how his rule finished.”

Keeping in mind the last words said by Podolsky, the declaration of Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka sounds quite significantly. At the briefing on November 18 he said: “The case is being investigated in terms of the motifs of Gongadze’s contract murder,” as reported by Interfax-Ukraine. When asked if Kuchma’s name features in the criminal case, Pshonka replied: “If we speak in the language of law, it can feature when somebody is accused meaning that there is the evidence of accusation and it is reflected in the materials of the case. Kuchma was interrogated in this case as a witness, just like others.”

Is the ground for what Podolsky said is being prepared yet?