Former Ukraine’s president Leonid Kuchma was charged on Thursday in the high-profile slaying of journalist Gyorgy Gongadze ten years ago.
A spokesperson of the general prosecutor’s office announced that Kuchma had been charged exceeding his authority that led to murder of the journalist in September 2000.
Gongadze was an outspoken critic of government corruption and what he considered Kuchma’s authoritarian rule. Gongadze was kidnapped then six weeks later, his decapitated body was found in a suburb of Kiev.
The main evidence against Kuchma are conversations secretly taped by his bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko at the time that allegedly capture the president giving orders to “deal with” the journalist. Parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn is also implicated in the recordings.
It is not clear whether Kuchma can be arrested and sentenced because the 10-year statue of limitations on the murder case expired six months ago.
A spokesperson of the general prosecutor’s office announced that Kuchma had been charged exceeding his authority that led to murder of the journalist in September 2000.
Gongadze was an outspoken critic of government corruption and what he considered Kuchma’s authoritarian rule. Gongadze was kidnapped then six weeks later, his decapitated body was found in a suburb of Kiev.
The main evidence against Kuchma are conversations secretly taped by his bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko at the time that allegedly capture the president giving orders to “deal with” the journalist. Parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn is also implicated in the recordings.
It is not clear whether Kuchma can be arrested and sentenced because the 10-year statue of limitations on the murder case expired six months ago.
