CZECH REP/UKRAINE: UKRAINIAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR SAYS AUTHORITIES KNOW WHO ORDERED THE MURDER OF INTERNET REPORTER GEORGIY GONGADZE IN 2000
Record ID:
648374
CZECH REP/UKRAINE: UKRAINIAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR SAYS AUTHORITIES KNOW WHO ORDERED THE MURDER OF INTERNET REPORTER GEORGIY GONGADZE IN 2000
- Title: CZECH REP/UKRAINE: UKRAINIAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR SAYS AUTHORITIES KNOW WHO ORDERED THE MURDER OF INTERNET REPORTER GEORGIY GONGADZE IN 2000
- Date: 2nd March 2005
- Summary: (BN16) KARLOVY VARY SPA, CZECH REPUBLIC (MARCH 2, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. GENERAL VIEW OF KARLOVY VARY SPA WITH TEPLA RIVER 0.03 2. HORSE CARRIAGE AND PAIR PASSING BY MLYNSKA KOLONAD 0.09 3. STARA KOLONADA 0.12 4. MV: AHLEN HOTEL AT SADOVA STREET 0.14 5. SLV: BODY GUARD WATCHING THE ENTRANCE OF THE HOTEL 0.17 6. ZOOM OUT - CAMERAS ON THE HOTEL (2 SHOTS) 0.29 7. CU: AHLAN HOTEL SIGN 0.32 (CEEF) KIEV, UKRAINE (FILE - FEBRUARY 9, 2001) (REUTERS) 8. VARIOUS OF UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT LEONID KUCHMA MEETING WITH THE HEAD OF RUSSIAN SECURITY COUNCIL SERGEI IVANOV (3 SHOTS) 0.53 (CEEF) KIEV, UKRAINE (FILE - NOVEMBER 28, 2000) (REUTERS) 9. CU: TAPE RECORDER WITH MICROPHONES AROUND IT 1.05 10. CU/SV: LEADER OF SOCIALIST PARTY OLEXANDER MOROZ, JOURNALISTS AND DEPUTIES LISTENING TO AUDIO TAPE ALLEGEDLY CONTAINING THE VOICE OF UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT LEONID KUCHMA TALKING ABOUT GETTING RID OF GONGADZE (2 SHOTS) 1.31 (CEEF) KIEV, UKRAINE (FILE - NOVEMBER 30, 2000) (REUTERS) 11. WIDE OF UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT IN SESSION/ ZOOM INTO SCREEN SHOWING TV INTERVIEW OF FORMER UKRAINIAN SECURITY SERVICE OFFICER NIKOLAI MELNICHENKO WHO SAID HE MADE THE RECORDING OF KUCHMA'S CONVERSATION WITH HIS AIDES ABOUT GONGADZE 1.45 12. HAS/SCU/WS: DEPUTIES RISING, SHOUTING AND BANGING ON DESKS IN SIGN OF ANGER (3 SHOTS) 1.51 (BN 14) KIEV, UKRAINE (MARCH 2, 2005) (REUTERS) 13. WS/CU: EXTERIOR OF PROSECUTOR GENERAL OFFICE (2 SHOTS) 1.59 14. WS: UKRAINE'S PROSECUTOR GENERAL SVYATOSLAV PISKUN (left) AND HIS DEPUTY VIKTOR SHOKIN (right) ENTERING PRESS CONFERENCE 2.06 15. JOURNALISTS 2.09 16. (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) PROSECUTOR GENERAL SVYATOSLAV PISKUN, SPEAKING ABOUT THE MURDER OF INTERNET REPORTER GEORGIY GONGADZE, SAYING: "All those who took part in this murder are now giving evidence at great length. Their evidence is based on a reconstruction of events". 2.26 17. (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) DEPUTY PROSECUTOR GENERAL VIKTOR SHOKIN SAYING: "All killers were police officers". SVYATOSLAV PISKUN (Ukrainian) "Police officers of the Intelligence Service of the Criminal Investigation Department". 2.40 18. JOURNALISTS 2.45 19. (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) PROSECUTOR GENERAL SVYATOSLAV PISKUN SAYING: "It was a deliberate murder, planned well in advance." (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) DEPUTY PROSECUTOR GENERAL VIKTOR SHOKIN SAYING: "All the suggestions that he was killed by accident are wrong. He was abducted with the intention of killing him." 2.58 (BN 14) KIEV, UKRAINE (FILE) (REUTERS) 20. PAN FROM THE CAR GEORGIY GONGADZE WAS KILLED IN TO THE CAR HIS BODY WAS TRANSPORTED IN 3.06 21. VARIOUS OF INVESTIGATORS AT WORK (3 SHOTS) 3.18 (BN 14) TARASCHA, KIEV REGION, UKRAINE (FILE - NOVEMBER 16, 2000) (REUTERS) 22. PAN FROM TREES TO HOLE IN GROUND WHERE HEADLESS CORPSE OF INTERNET REPORTER GEORGIY GONGADZE WAS FOUND 3.24 23. JOURNALISTS EXAMINING HOLE IN GROUND 3.30 (BN 14) KIEV, UKRAINE (FILE - FEBRUARY 11, 2001) (REUTERS) 24. PROTESTORS MARCHING TOWARDS CAMERA 3.34 25. CLOSE UP ON BANNER READING "KUCHMA - KAPUT" 3.39 26. WIDE OF PROTEST 3.46 27. ** NIGHT ** TRACKING SHOT OF PEOPLE HOLDING CANDLES STANDING IN LINE 3.54 28. SCU: MEMORIAL FOR GONGADZE, PORTRAIT AND FLOWERS 4.00 29. CLOSE UP OF PHOTOGRAPH OF GONGADZE AND CANDLE 4.05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 17th March 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KIEV, TARASCHA, UKRAINE/KARLOVY VARY SPA, CZECH REPUBLIC
- Country: Ukraine
- Reuters ID: LVA7VDFGLS81JT4ZW0JPF1LVRQXX
- Story Text: Ukraine's chief prosecutor says authorities know who
ordered murder of investigative reporter.
Facing accusations of misdeeds, former Ukrainian
President Leonid Kuchma remains at a spa in Karlovy Vary,
81 miles west of Prague, in the Czech Republic, known for
its springs of mineral water.
Ukraine's chief prosecutor said Wednesday (March 2) that
investigators know who ordered the slaying of Internet
journalist Georgiy Gongadze, but refused to identify the
suspected mastermind.
"The killers executed a criminal order. We know the
person who gave this order," General Prosecutor Svyatoslav
Piskun told reporters.
He said the suspected killers had been identified, and
the case was closed. Charges haven't yet been filed.
"All those who took part in this murder are now giving
evidence at great length. Their evidence is based on a
reconstruction of events".
Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin said that all
the killers were police officers, and Piskun added: "Police
officers of the Intelligence Service of the Criminal
Investigation Department".
The gruesome murder of Gongadze, the editor of Internet
website Ukrainska Pravda, was the most high-profile
criminal case since Ukraine's independence from the Soviet
Union in 1991.
Gongadze was abducted in the centre of Kiev in
September 2000. His decapitated and headless body was found
in a wood outside Kiev two months later and subjected to
several forensic tests before prosecutors were able to
identify it.
The corpse remains unburied, kept in a Kiev morgue.
The discovery of the mutilated body tarnished the image
of Ukraine's then-president Leonid Kuchma.
Kuchma was linked to the murder by his former
bodyguard, who fled Ukraine with hundreds of hours of tapes
he recorded secretly in his office. In one excerpt, a voice
similar to Kuchma's was heard giving an order to "deal
with" the reporter.
Kuchma has always denied any connection with the crime,
and no convincing evidence of his involvement has ever been
presented.
Gongadze's murder triggered months of protests,
weathered by Kuchma for a time. But the scandal dogged his
later years in office, which ended in January when the
"Orange Revolution" swept Viktor Yushchenko to power.
Yushchenko had described finding Gongadze's killers as
a matter of honour.
"I can declare here that Gongadze's murder has been
solved. The killers have been detained and are now giving
evidence," Yushchenko said on Tuesday in a statement to
reporters.
"The former authorities not only lacked the political
will to solve this murder. They covered up for the
murderers."
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None