Ukrainian Investigators: Interior Minister Ordered Assassination

Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Office completed the pre-trial investigation of the Gongadze murder case. In 2000, Georgi Gongadze, a journalist who sharply criticized the Ukrainian leaders in power at that time, including President Leonid Kuchma, was abducted and murdered. The active investigation started in 2005 in the wake of the so-called “Orange Revolution.” In 2008, three police officers were convicted of the murder. Charges are now being brought against General Alexey Pukach, who was a police officer at the time of the murder and who was found and arrested in 2009; Pukach allegedly organized the murder and personally participated in it. According to investigators, Pukach was following orders of then Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko. In 2005, Kravchenko was found dead after being summoned to the General Prosecutor's Office to be questioned about the Gongadze murder. According to official reports, Kravchenko committed suicide (even though he had apparently been shot twice in the head).

http://lenta.ru/news/2010/09/10/gong/


http://videonews.com.ua/videos/puk0308.html (video: Pukach arrest)