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Death of Igor Goncharov

08.04.2004   

In the morning of 1 August Igor Goncharov, one of the accused in the “case of turnskins”, died in the emergency hospital. According to some data, it was Goncharov, a former senior officer of the DFOC, who, after the disappearance of Georgiy Gongadze, passed to mass media the information about some concrete officers of criminal investigation department that kept the watch over the journalist. Later this information was officially confirmed by representatives of law-enforcing organs.

The Institute of mass information received the envelope with the inscription: “To open after my death”. The envelope contained the appeal written by Igor Goncharov.

The IMI published this appeal without making public the names of the persons mentioned in it and the place, where material evidences were stored.

"APPEAL

I, Igor Goncharov, born in 1959 in Kyiv, a Ukrainian, pensioner of the Ministry of Interior, is writing this appeal being in right mind. I ask everybody, who will receive this appeal, to make it public.

In June 2002 I communicated to Khomula, the head of the Kyiv DFOC, the names of the persons, who had committed the kidnapping and murder of journalist Gongadze, and the facts connected with a number of other crimes planned and committed by the DFOC officers jointly with the members of criminal group […]. After this I was cruelly beaten. Before the beating Khomula and his subordinate, detective Igor, tortured me in the building of the DFOC on the Moskovskaya Square.

Khomula demanded from me not to evidence against the DFOC officers, who, together with […] and another criminal, who also was a member of “Kisel’s” criminal group, had committed the kidnapping of journalist Gongadze in September 2000 (I communicated to the USS officers […] and […] the surnames of these persons and of the workers of criminal intelligence service, who shadowed Gongadze, as well as the facts about the participation of the DFOC officers in other murders and kidnappings committed by members of the criminal group […]).

These crimes were committed by the direct order of […] and, later, of […]. Some top authorities of our state, […], also knew about these kidnappings and murders and were connected with them.

I have the materials collected jointly with the USS officers: audio records of talks, written confession of […] and other materials. I proposed to Khomula to seize these materials officially, in presence of journalists and representatives of the USS. I promised to show where these materials were stored. Yet, Khomula demanded to pass these materials to him for destruction. Besides, he refused to write down my testimony, he demanded from me to give the false evidence on the facts connected with the investigation, and promised that then I would be only a witness in this case.

When I refused, Khomula promised that I would be murdered by other criminals in the preliminary prison, and that my death would be represented as suicide or the death because of a disease. In spite of my invalidity, the prison doctors refused to examine me, and I cannot get any medical aid in the preliminary prison in spite of my complaints on frequent abdominal pains and losses of consciousness. I think that this is done with the consent and by the order of Khomula. Probably, the attempts to unmask the people, who organized the crimes, will result in my death. Yet, I am doing that for the sake of truth and justice.

24 February 2003. Written and signed by I. Goncharov.

(«The Poltava oblast media club», No. 40, 7 August 2003)

***

The Institute of mass information received the envelope with the inscription: “To open after my death”. This was the appeal of Igor Goncharov. Now the IMI conducts its own investigation.

The envelope contained 17 hand-written pages signed by Igor Goncharov.

Taking into account the gravity of the accusations and the fact that the guilt of a person may be proved only by court, we will not mention some names, to which Goncharov refers.

In February 2003 Goncharov wrote: “In spite of the moral pressure exerted on me by the investigating officers of the General Prosecutor’s office, in spite of the threats that I will be murdered by other convicts in the preliminary prison, … I am not going to commit suicide, although somebody, I am sure, is hoping for this. I also want to inform that more than once I got the threats that I would be murdered, and my death would look as a suicide or a death of a disease.

Evidently, it is connected with my statements that I am going to tell at the trial about a number of crimes initiated and committed by the officers of militia, Kyiv department of the DFOC and the special squad “Sokol”, as well as with my intention to unmask the persons, who organized the kidnapping and murder of journalist Gongadze. I am going to evidence in court in the presence of journalist, because I do not trust to the General Prosecutor’s office. 20 February 2003. Written and signed by I. Goncharov.”

On 24 February Goncharov returned to the topic of Gongadze’s disappearance: “I have the materials collected jointly with the USS officers: audio records of talks, written confession of and other materials. I proposed to Khomula to seize these materials officially, in presence of journalists and representatives of the USS. I promised to show, where these materials were stored. Yet, Khomula demanded to pass these materials top him for destruction. Besides, he refused to write down my testimony, he demanded from me to give the false evidence… When I refused, Khomula promised to murder me in the preliminary prison…”

The most interesting document is the appeal of Goncharov (without a date) with the postscript:

“I buried the material evidence, photos, video and audio records, connected with the above-mentioned crimes, … the evidence are in a metal box in a briefcase and sack, […] and my friend […] know the place”.

According to the IMI data, the application on the seizure of these materials with the participation of MPs has been already presented to Grigoriy Omelchenko. He gave the consent to render any assistance, but the materials have not been obtained yet.

The editorial board got the anonymous warning about the possible problems connected with the publication of some facts, so we had to shorten our material. Yet, we have to inform about some interesting data presented by Goncharov.

The most interesting information concerns one of the murders committed in the Kyiv oblast. A local businessman gave the order to a top officer of the DFOC to get the debt from the head of a bank. The order was passed to the DFOC officer M., who sent three drug addicts to fulfill the task. During the action the unpleasant incident happened. The executors injected a psychotropic substance to the businessman’s wife, and she died. So, in order to liquidate the witness, they shot the businessman. One of the murderers stays now under the guard of the DFOC as an important witness, and officer M. departed for the USA (probably, it was he, who was detained this year in the connection with the attempt to learn the address of Gongadze’s wife in the USA)…

Moreover, Goncharov believes that the death of the driver of a well-known political figure was also caused by the injection of a psychotropic substance…

Another case, where three persons were murdered, was committed with the participation of the DFOC officers by the order of a brother of the rector of one of famous Ukrainian technical institutes…

These facts are not only interesting, they are also socially important. So, it is rather strange that the investigation ignored them.

On Tuesday the IMI passed the copies of the documents to the General Prosecutor’s office, and we are continuing our journalistic investigation.

(Institute of mass information, 5 August 2003)

 

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