KYIV, Nov. 29 – Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has threatened to sue for defamation an opposition leader who told parliament he believed the head of state had played a role in the disappearance of a missing journalist.
The journalist, Georgy Gongadze, has not been heard of for more than two months and the news website he helped run, www.pravda.com.ua, has said it believes a decapitated corpse found in the countryside is his.
Kuchma’s press secretary, Oleksander Martynenko, appeared on state television UT-1 late on Tuesday to rebut the allegations made by Socialist Party leader Olexander Moroz, a former presidential candidate.
“On 28 November the deputy Oleksander Moroz appeared before parliament and accused the president of Ukraine and the head of his administration of organizing the disappearance of the journalist Georgy Gongadze,” said Martynenko, reading from a statement.
“The press service of Ukraine’s president has been authorized to say that these assertions are absolutely groundless and are complete insinuations and, correspondingly, are defined as insult and slander by Ukraine’s criminal code,” he said. Martynenko added that the president reserved the right to “take adequate measures including (steps) to protect his honor and dignity in court”.
Gongadze’s disappearance has sparked outrage in Ukraine and his supporters have said they think his disappearance was linked to pravda.com’s criticism of leading businessmen and high-ranking officials.
Pravda.com said two weeks ago that police had found a mutilated corpse wearing an unusual bracelet and a signet ring identical to Gongadze’s. The body also showed traces of an old arm injury similar to one the journalist had suffered, it said.
Police say they do not yet know if the corpse is Gongadze’s.
SECURITY POLICE DENY PROVIDING TAPES
Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Moroz as telling a news conference after his speech to parliament that he had based his accusations on an audio tape given to him by an SBU domestic security agency officer.
The news agency quoted him as saying the tape contained a recording of a telephone conversation between Kuchma and other senior officials.
“In his words (the tape) provided evidence that President Leonid Kuchma ordered the disappearance of the journalist Georgy Gongadze,” Interfax-Ukraine said.
The official Ukrinform news agency carried a statement from the SBU on Wednesday denying that any of the agency’s officers had offered Moroz tape recordings. “Nobody under any circumstances has any relation with Moroz,” the statement said. “It’s clear to any basically educated specialist that it is impossible … to tap telephone lines or other communications channels in order to overhear conversations in senior officials’ rooms.”
