Free Republic

THE man who published recordings that he claimed linked former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma to the murder of an opposition journalist says he fears for his life after a key witness in the slaying was found dead in what police said was a suicide. Mykola Melnichenko also said the tapes he made when he worked as Mr Kuchma's bodyguard indicated the murder of investigative reporter Georgy Gongadze in 2000 was only one of many crimes and legal infractions committed by top officials in the Kuchma regime. Mr Kuchma has always vigorously denied any link to the killing and authorities in...

OSCOW, March 5 - The chief of Ukraine's security service said Saturday that the country's former interior minister, Yuri F. Kravchenko, had shot himself twice in the head on Friday, refuting speculation that he had been killed by someone else. The official announcement and a note found in Mr. Kravchenko's pocket, the security chief added, left little doubt that Mr. Kravchenko had committed suicide. Advertisement Oleksandr V. Turchinov, chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine, said in televised remarks that the note left by Mr. Kravchenko could provide significant details for prosecutors investigating the killing of Georgy Gongadze, a prominent...

KIEV - Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko said Friday that a former interior minister who had been implicated in the murder of an opposition journalist and was found dead of an apparent suicide had "sentenced himself." "Everyone has a choice," Yushchenko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. "Either cooperation with the tribunal, the prosecutor, give testimony... defend your rights and honor. There is a second possibility -- sentence yourself," he said. Yushchenko spoke after former interior minister Yury Kravchenko was found dead at his elite country house outside Kiev hours before he was due to be questioned over...

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...