Prosecutor General accused of simulating activity on Gongadze case

Valentine Telychenko, lawyer representing Georgy Gongadze’s widow, believes that the Prosecutor General is creating a show of carrying out an investigation into those who ordered and organized the killing of the journalist.  At a press conference, reported by Ukrainian News, she stated: “On the one hand the Prosecutor General is simulating an investigation into those who ordered and organized the crime. The investigation team is inept, and pretence is underway.” At the same time, she noted that the Ukrainian authorities are assuring the international community that those who carried out the killing have received sentences.

Ms Telychenko also considers the cooperation between the former Presidential guard Mykola Melnychenko and the Prosecutor General over the case to be ineffective. “The results of such “constructive” cooperation are close to zero”.  She also expressed doubts about the professionalism of the investigators looking into who ordered and organized the murder.

Ms Telychenko told reporters that she had applied to the criminal investigation unit in the Prosecutor General’s Office for a check to be made into the possibility that the authorities were protecting one of the figures in the case Oleksy Pukach, however her application had been turned down.

On 15 March 2008 the Kyiv Court of Appeal found three former police officers guilty of murdering Georgy Gongadze. Valery Protasov was sentenced to 13 years, while Oleksandr Popovych and Valery Kostenko received 12-year terms.  The former head of the department all the men worked in, Oleksy Pukach is on the run.

From information at www.pravda.com.ua