The Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld a verdict of Oleksiy Pukach, a former head of the Department of External Surveillance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze.
“Today, on July 2, 2021, the panel of judges of the Cassation Criminal Court within the Supreme Court completed a cassation consideration and announced a decision on the case of O. Pukach. Based on the results of the consideration of criminal case No. 1-368 / 11 [proceedings No. 51-6302 km 18], the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of Pechersky District Court of Kyiv dated January 29, 2013 and the ruling of Kyiv Court of Appeal dated January 6, 2016, and the cassation complaints were dismissed,” the Supreme Court told Interfax-Ukraine.
As was reported earlier, Gongadze went missing in Kyiv on September 16, 2000. In November that year, a headless body was found in Kyiv region that, according to forensic experts, could have been Gongadze’s. In 2009, remains of a human skull were found in Kyiv region, which, according to a statement by the Prosecutor General’s Office, belonged to Gongadze.
The funeral of the murdered journalist took place in Kyiv on March 22, 2016. The people who ordered the murder have not been identified yet.
On March 21, 2011, a criminal case was initiated against second President of Ukraine (1994-2005) Leonid Kuchma. He was accused of abuse of power and official authority, which later led to the murder of journalist Gongadze (Part 3 of Article 166 of the Criminal Code as amended in 1960).
On December 13, 2011, Pechersky District Court of Kyiv found it illegal to initiate a criminal case against Kuchma and canceled the corresponding resolution of the Prosecutor General’s Office. The records of the former employee of the State Protection Department, Major Mykola Melnychenko, were not recognized by the court as evidence in the case of the murder of Gongadze. Kyiv Court of Appeal, and then the Higher Specialized Court for the Consideration of Civil and Criminal Cases, recognized the closure of the criminal case against Kuchma as legal. Kuchma himself categorically denies his involvement in the death of the journalist.
In December 2012, Renat Kuzmin, who served as First Deputy Prosecutor General, told reporters that the investigation into the ordering parties for the murder of the journalist were being conducted under new conditions, and was included in the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations. Such actions are associated with the entry into force on November 21 of the new Criminal Procedure Code.
On January 29, 2013, Pechersky District Court of Kyiv sentenced former head of the Department of External Surveillance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Oleksiy Pukach to life imprisonment, having found him guilty of the murder of Gongadze.
On January 6, 2016, the Court of Appeal upheld Pukach’s sentence. During this meeting, Pukach told a new version of the murder of Gongadze.
At the beginning of the summer of 2016, Pukach was convoyed to serve his sentence in Chortkiv colony in Ternopil region.
In June 2017, the High Specialized Court of Ukraine for the Consideration of Civil and Criminal Cases ruled to declassify the audio recordings of the meetings of Pechersky District Court of Kyiv on the charge of Pukach, convicted of Gongadze’s murder.
