Gongadze Case: 150-page indictment behind closed doors

According to Valentina Telychenko, the lawyer representing Myroslava Gongadze, the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv has begun reading out the indictment against  Oleksy Pukach who is charged with killing journalist Georgy Gongadze. 

The indictment has 150 pages, with 50 read out on Tuesday.

Andriy Fedur, the lawyer representing Lesya Gongadze, Georgy Gongadze’s mother, also spoke to UNIAN after leaving the court hearing since all his material was classified as secret and he saw no point in remaining while the indictment was read out.

Mr Fedur said that it is not only the case material which has been classified as secret, but also the name of the murdered journalist, Pukach, former Minister of Internal Affairs Yury Kravchenko and the very committing of the crime.

“In view of this I asked the court for permission to leave the hearing while this top secret state document was being read out. I simply wanted to demonstrate my position where, according to that secret document, such things as the crime and the people involved in the crime have become secret”.

On Monday 15 August the court rejected the application lodged by Valentina Telychenko who had asked for an expert option to be obtained indicating the presence of State secrets in the indictment against former Police Colonel, Oleksy Pukach.

“Before reading out the indictment and submissions which are stamped as secret, I would ask for an assessment by an expert on issues of State assessment who would indicate the fragments of the indictment and submission containing State secrets, in order for them to be excluded or removed to enable the victims’ side to read the rest of the text”,

The reading of the indictment is to continue on Wednesday.

New information from two UNIAN reports