Cassation appeal against withdrawal of charges against Kuchma adjourned

The High Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases has adjourned until 28 July examination of the cassation appeal against the termination of criminal proceedings against former Presidentt Kuchma in connection with Georgy Gongadze’s murder.  The Kyiv Court of Appeal on 20 January this year upheld the decision of the Pechersky District Court which on 14 December terminated the case.  

As reported, the court found that the only grounds for the decision by First Deputy Prosecutor General Rinat Kuzmin to initiate criminal proceedings were the tapes made by Mykola Melnychenko. It cited the Constitutional Court judgement from October 2011which stated that prosecutions could not be based on information received through investigative operations carried out by people unauthorized to do so.  Major Melnychenko acted on his own initiative when he illicitly taped conversations between Kuchma and others.

Appeals had been lodged by Myroslava Gongadze, journalist Oleksy Podolsky, who has victim status in the case against General Pukach, the lawyer for Mykola Melnychenko and the Prosecutor General. It is the latter which lodged the cassation appeal.

The adjournment this time, according to Interfax Ukraine, is in order to fix organizational flaws.