STRASBOURG, France (AP) – Ukraine’s Parliamentary speaker said Oct. 6 that accusations he had instigated the killing of an investigative journalist were a ‘political provocation.’
Last month, a parliamentary commission investigating the kidnapping and killing of Heorhiy Gongadze five years ago accused Volodymyr Lytvyn of instigating the slaying.
Gongadze, an Internet journalist who wrote about high-level corruption under former President Leonid Kuchma, was kidnapped and killed in 2000. His decapitated body was found in a forest outside Kyiv.
The commission’s findings stemmed from recordings in which voices resembling those of Lytvyn, former President Leonid Kuchma and other officials are heard allegedly conspiring against Gongadze.
“International experts have said the recordings contained certain words, certain sentences that were added,” Lytvyn told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe after a speech marking the 10th anniversary of Ukraine’s links with the human rights watchdog.
“I reject the accusations as a political provocation. Facts will be clarified. It should be the truth, not political convenience.” Lytvyn, Kuchma’s former chief of staff, has repeatedly denied any involvement.
