Gongadze Case Remains Open for The Prosecutor General’s Office And Council of Europe

It appears that any attempt to put a full stop in the case of the murdered journalist Heorhy Gongadze ends up with this full stop turning into a question mark. Last Tuesday, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Yuri Smyrnov announced that the death of journalist Gongadze had been solved and that the prosecution possesses a wealth of evidence about the accidental nature of this crime. According to the minister, the two killers have perished, “while there are no organizers at all.”

On May 16 First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Mykola Dzhyha now attending the 30th European regional conference of Interpol which opened last Wednesday in Tbilisi, said that Heorhy Gongadze had been murdered by drug addicts who were giving him a lift. Mr. Dzhyha said that on the day Gongadze was killed two unknown persons offered to give him a lift in their car, UNIAN quotes the Russian RIA Novosti Agency as reporting. They turned out to be drug addicts looking for narcotics. Failing to find any, they tried to rob Gongadze. The journalist resisted, was killed, and then buried in Kyiv. However, his remains were then reburied in the Tarashcha Woods. Mr. Dzhyha confirmed that investigation of the murder of Heorhy Gongadze had been closed. He noted the murder was of “a purely criminal nature” and had nothing to do with Gongadze’s journalistic activities. In the words of Mr. Dzhyha, those who murdered Heorhy were also killed in turn, and their killers have been detained by law enforcement bodies.

As Andriy Fedur, lawyer of Lesia Gongadze, the journalist’s mother, told Interfax-Ukraine last Thursday, the official reply he received from the Prosecutor General’s Office says it is premature to claim that the crime connected with the disappearance and murder of journalist Heorhy Gongadze has been solved. This means, the lawyer noted, “prosecutors did not confirm the statement made by police.” In his words, the Prosecutor General’s reply points out that “some versions are being looked into, but it is too early to say the crime has been solved.” The Prosecutor General’s Office intends to make public the facts revealed in the course of investigating the murder of Gongadze only after Oleksiy Bahants, Deputy Prosecutor General, comes back from leave, i.e., after May 20.

The Council of Europe’s reaction was immediate. On Wednesday, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, CE rapporteur for Ukraine, Hanne Severinsen, said that, as far as the CE is concerned, the Gongadze case still remains open in spite of statements by some representatives of Ukraine’s law enforcement bodies. According to Ms. Severinsen, the CE will ask President Kuchma about what has been done to ensure a full and transparent investigation. Ms. Severinsen added that European Parliament members would like to know the latest information on the Gongadze case by the time the PACE Monitoring Committee begins its meeting on June 8 in Paris. She noted the question of investigating the case is certain to be placed on the agenda of the Assembly’s June session. Ms. Severinsen also said the assembly regards investigation of the Gongadze case as “a test of freedom of the press and functioning of democracy.”