“Those who ordered Gongadze’s murder have every chance of escaping justice”

Valentina Telychenko, lawyer representing Myroslava Gongadze has told “Telekritika” that those who ordered the killing have every chance of not being held to answer. 

She was responding to remarks made by former Presidential guard Mykola Melnychenko who said that in autumn the time bar on prosecutions over the case would come into effect with this obstructing attempts to bring those responsible for ordering the killing of Georgy Gongadze to justice.

“For murder under aggravating circumstances the “old” (1960) Criminal Code is in force envisaging only life imprisonment. Therefore only the court can decide whether to free specific individuals from criminal liability if they’ve at least been charged. However in the case of Oleksiy Pukach the time bar does not come into effect from 17 September 2010 since for at least 4 years he was hiding from justice and was on the wanted list. It is therefore too early to talk about a time bar in his case”, Ms Telychenko stated.

As far as those who ordered the crime, these have not been established and that, in her opinion, effectively means that they have very good chances of escaping punishment, even not being named.