19/03/2008 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Strasbourg, 19.03.2008 - Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Germany, ALDE), Rapporteur of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly on the Gongadze case, welcomed the conviction of three former police officers for the killing of Georgiy Gongadze, a Ukrainian journalist whose disappearance in September 2000 gave rise to allegations that senior officials of the Kuchma administration were involved. "While I welcome the conviction of the three police officers, I must insist that the Gongadze file is not closed until the instigators and organisers of this crime have also been held to account. I am pleased that Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko has recently made a statement to the same effect."
Investigations into the background of the Gongadze murder have been marred by the escape of General Pukach, the convicted policemen's senior officer, who is still at large, and by the alleged suicide of the former Minister of the Interior, Mr Kravchenko. "I have encouraged the Prosecutor General to co-operate with the US Department of Justice, which had offered to assist in verifying the so-called Melnichenko recordings. These may hold important clues as to the alleged involvement of senior Kuchma era officials."
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is due to present a report to the Parliamentary Assembly on the investigation of the Gongadze case and other Kuchma era crimes later this year. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is due to address the Parliamentary Assembly on Wednesday 16 April.