Appeal court upholds removal of contract killing charge in Gongadze case

The Kyiv Court of Appeal on Wednesday left without change the ruling from the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv which on 31 January upheld the Prosecutor General’s decision to remove the charge involving contract killing against Oleksiy Pukach.

The appeal had been lodged by Valentina Telychenko, the lawyer representing Georgy Gongadze’s widow, while the initial suit to the Pechersky Court was filed by both Ms Telychenko and victim in the case Oleksy Podolsky.

The decision in December last year to remove the contract killing charge followed an investigation which found that the order to kill Gongadze had been issued by the former Minister of the Interior Yury Kravchenko who died in early  2005.  Kravchenko, despite having two gunshot wounds to the head, is officially said to have committed suicide.

All of this has been widely seen, both in Ukraine and abroad, as aimed at preventing any real investigation into who really ordered the killing to protect those who either are or were in very high positions.

New information from www.unian.net

see also:
• One of the three convicted over Gongadze’s murder moved
• Pukach trial to be held behind closed doors
• Kuchma’s lawyers get criminal investigation reopened against Melnychenko
• Trial of Gongadze murder suspect to continue behind closed doors
• Charges against Kuchma: Is this about murder – or politics?
• Ukraine’s ex-president charged over murder
• Gongadze lawyer sees grounds for criminal charges against Kuchma - and politics
• Prosecutor’s Office confirms criminal case against Kuchma
• CPJ concerned by irregularities in Ukraine’s Gongadze case
• Those behind Georgiy Gongadze’s murder still unpunished 10 years later
• Prosecutor’s decision to remove contract killing charge in Gongadze case challenged
• Court accepts removal of contract killing charge in Gongadze case
• Never-Ending Story
• Has the Prosecutor General changed position on Gongadze Murder?
• Gongadze Murder: Prosecutor ends investigation against Pukach
• Prosecutor General goes for Ukrainska Pravda over Gongadze case publication
• Prosecutor General’s investigators find Kravchenko ordered Gongadze’s killing
• On 21 May 2010 Georgy Gongadze should have turned 41