Gongadze case yet again put on hold

The Kyiv Court of Appeal has postponed the hearings into the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze until 13 February 2008 due to the illness of one of defendant Mykola Protasov.  This was reported to the press by Valentina Telychenko, who is representing Myroslava Gongadze in court.

She stated that a letter had been read out at the beginning of the court hearing from doctors saying that Mr Protasov’s state of health precluded his taking part in the court proceedings, and that the long delay had been on their recommendation.

She added that the court had not examined the results of the psychological and psychological-psychiatric reports received on the defendants.

It had been planned to restart the hearings after a lengthy break called on 24 July in order to carry out those studies.

As reported here at the time, the Prosecutor had applied for psychological-psychiatric assessments on each of the defendants and a medical-psychiatric assessment on Protasov.

On 19 December 2005 the Kyiv Court of Appeal began preliminary hearings into the charges of carrying out Gongadze’s killing.

The accused – former police officers Valery Kostenko and Mykola Protasov – are remanded in custody, while Oleksandr Popovych has signed an undertaking not to abscond.

Another person accused of murdering the journalist, ex-head of the external surveillance department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Oleksy Pukach is on the police wanted list.