Ukraine Ex-Minister Linked to Murder Found Dead
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Ukraine ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Posted on 03/04/2005 1:23:00 AM PST by HAL9000
KIEV (Reuters) - Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko, linked to the murder of investigative journalist Georgiy Gongadze, has been found dead, the SBU security service agency said on Friday.SBU spokeswoman Marina Ostapenko said by telephone that Kravchenko's body had been found at his country house near Kiev.
A team of investigators was on its way to the site and a preliminary investigation pointed to suicide, she said.
Kravchenko, who was interior minister at the time of Gongadze's murder in 2000, had been due to give evidence on Friday to prosecutors in connection with the case.
President Viktor Yushchenko said this week that Gongadze's murder had been solved. Three policemen have been detained and a fourth is being sought.
The discovery of Gongadze's headless corpse outside Kiev became post-Soviet Ukraine's most celebrated crime case and a turning point in the 10-year term of former president Leonid Kuchma.
Kuchma was accused of involvement in the murder on the basis of tapes of conversations in his office made by a former bodyguard. But he has always denied any connection with it and no conclusive evidence was ever presented.
Why do I not trust any of these politicians in countries like Ukraine??
Was this the 'Kiev Post' reporter??
ALARM - the Communists ask for the immediate arrest of Koutchma
KIEV - the communist parliamentary fraction took Friday the general Parquet floor to immediately stop former president Léonid Koutchma after the death of the ex-minister of the Interior Iouri Kravtchenko, brought back the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
Via AP
Ukraine's Ex-Interior Minister Found Dead
Updated 5:50 AM ET March 4, 2005
By MARA D. BELLABY
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's former interior minister was found dead of an apparent suicide Friday, just before he was to meet with prosecutors for questioning about the 2000 slaying of an investigative journalist, officials said.
Yuri Kravchenko had been implicated in organizing the killing of Heorhiy Gongadze, who investigated corruption at the highest levels of the Ukrainian government.
President Viktor Yushchenko said Kravchenko's death could be linked to the probe into Gongadze's slaying and ordered Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko and the Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun to take the investigation under personal control.
"The investigation must be conducted in a transparent and professional manner and in full accordance with law," Yushchenko said in a written statement Friday.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, Inna Kisel, said Kravchenko's death was an apparent suicide, and Ukraine's TV5 reported that the 54-year-old former police official shot himself at his country residence in an exclusive enclave outside Kiev.
Gongadze was abducted in Kiev in September 2000, and his decapitated body was found months later buried in a forest outside the capital. His death sparked months of protests against former President Leonid Kuchma, who the opposition alleged had ordered the killing. Kuchma has denied any involvement.
The allegations against Kuchma were based on recordings that a former presidential bodyguard said were made secretly in Kuchma's office. In the tapes, Kuchma was overheard repeatedly complaining about Gongadze's reporting and ordering Kravchenko to "drive him out, throw (him) out, give him to the Chechens."
Volodymyr Lytvyn, Kuchma's former chief-of-staff, was also allegedly heard on the tapes saying: "In my opinion, let loose Kravchenko to use alternative methods."
Kuchma and his circle have disputed the authenticity of the tapes. Lytvyn, the current parliament speaker, dismissed the allegations in an earlier interview with The Associated Press, saying: "I wasn't brought up that way." He said Thursday he was ready to testify in connection with the case.
Yushchenko, who was elected in December, has said that solving Gongadze's slaying is a top task and a moral obligation of his government. He ordered investigators to move quickly.
On Wednesday, Piskun, the prosecutor general, said that investigators had identified all four people involved in Gongadze's slaying and knew who was the mastermind.
Two of the suspected killers were in custody, one was under orders not to leave Kiev and the fourth, senior police official Oleksiy Pukach, was wanted on an international warrant, Piskun said. All were employed by Ukraine's Interior Ministry.
Ukraine's Segodnya newspaper reported that Kravchenko had been put under official surveillance in December and ordered not to leave Ukraine.
Hryhoriy Omelchenko, a lawmaker who has repeatedly focused public attention on the need to solve Gongadze's slaying and arrest the masterminds, told The Associated Press that he had asked the prosecutor to detain Kravchenko more than a month ago.
"The arrest would have been a way to protect Kravchenko," he said. "If he had been arrested, he would be alive."
On Monday, a man identified as a key witness in the case, Yuriy Nesterov, was reportedly wounded when an unidentified assailant lobbed a hand-grenade at him. Another key witness, former police officer Ihor Honcharov, died in prison two years ago under suspicious circumstances. He had implicated Nesterov in kidnapping, torturing and killing Gongadze.
Gosh the former Soviet Union is a scary place. I have a Ukranian friend that I have spoken with about these kinds of things (like Yanokuvich's assistances "committing suicide" after the election) and he says it's just the way things are. I said- no wonder you live in America now! yikes. He said pretty much the entire former USSR is still a pretty dangerous place. I hope Yushchenko is serious about making real change, and that he can inspire the rest of the former USSR to follow suit.
Let freedom ring!
I'd stay away from the Chicken Kiev.
Looks like the "clean-up crew" has been hard at it. More "assignments" lie ahead,IMO.
There's a good chance this guy was rubbed out to keep him from testifying to the involvement of the ex-prime minister in the journalist's beheading. Nice guys, those Soviets. Just because you put the "Democracy" sign over the door, doesn't mean the real owners have changed. Old habits are hard to break. I wish the new guy, who's already been poisoned once, all the luck in the world. He'll need it.
Sounds like a Soviet style "suicide".
Soviet style suicide?
You mean he shot himself twice in the back of the head.
Yeah. It was a suicide. And his last words were: "NOOOO! PLEEEEASE! NOOOOO!!!!!"
Yeah, it was a suicide. And his last words were: "NOOOOO!!! PLEEEEASE! NOOOOOO!"
Ukraine Ping
Ukraine Ex-Minister Linked to Murder Found Dead
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Ukraine ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Your thoughts?
Foster: Ukrainian for "suicide".
Don't know: dead men don't turn state's evidence, then again, dead men don't bring up secrets that embarress the sitting government either. I've read reports that it was suicide and I've posted one that stated he had 2 bullet wounds. Either way, Yushchenko was quick to dismiss it as suicide. Maybe a bit to quick, like Saakashvili with Zhadia's death.
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