Who has not yet changed their ways?

By its dramatic pattern, the Appeal Court ses­sion in the Gongadze case on April 20 some­what resembled that of February 6, when Oleksii Pu­kach, the chief perpetrator of the crimes against jour­nalist Geor­gy Gongadze and pubic activist Oleksii Podol­sky, made a sensational state­ment about blackmail and threats on the part of Pechersky Court judge Andrii Melnyk, public prose­cutors Volodymyr Shylov and Roman Voloshyn, as well as Valentyna Telychenko, Myro­slava Gongadze’s represen­tative in court, as the case was handled in a court of original jurisdiction.

The session began with Podolsky’s request to read out a letter from US Congressman Steve Cohen, member of the US Helsinki Commission, to Uk­raine’s President Petro Po­ro­shenko. In this address, the US lawmaker calls on the Ukrainian president to make sure that a full investigation be conducted into the three high-profile cases which have long been under the US Helsinki Commission’s scrutiny – the abovementioned crimes against Gongadze and Podolsky and the attempt on the life of Oleksandr Yeliash­­ke­vych, a member of the 2nd- and 3rd-convocation parliaments. Besides, Cohen urged Poroshenko to receive Yeliash­kevych and discuss the details of investigation.

At first judge Stepan Hladii suggested that Podolsky himself read out Cohen’s letter, only to hear a curt ans­wer: “This is not an address to me. If the international community appeals to the Ukrai­nian state but its representatives do not even want to announce this letter, it is sheer nonsense. It makes no sense for me to read out the letter because I chang­ed my ways long ago, while this letter is addressed to you as representatives of the old system, who do not want to change. Incidentally, I want to inform the court that the He­lsinki Commission has invited me to the US, for they intend to hear me officially. And I want to warn you that I will tell them about the behavior of all participants in this trial.”