Friday, 20 January 2012An appeals court in Kiev on Friday upheld a ruling that dropped a criminal case against former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on suspicion of involvement in organizing the killing of journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000.
The charges against Kuchma were thrown out last month.Last year, a former senior official at the interior ministry confessed to strangling and beheading Gongadze but said he was acting on Kuchma’s orders.
Gongadze was a fierce critic of Kuchma’s government.
Secret tape recordings purporting to incriminate Kuchma could not be considered as evidence because there were obtained “illegally,” the judges ruled in December.
Kuchma, Ukraine’s president between 1994 and 2005, has always denied the allegations.
The murder shocked Ukraine and sparked massive street protests. |
Friday, 20 January 2012
Ria Novosti
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