Leak forces Ukraine to investigate death of witness to murder

Ukrainian authorities are to investigate the death in custody of a key witness in a politically sensitive murder case after The Independent revealed confidential documents which showed he had been murdered.

Ukrainian authorities are to investigate the death in custody of a key witness in a politically sensitive murder case after The Independent revealed confidential documents which showed he had been murdered.

The victim, Ihor Honcharov, a former undercover policeman, was providing information about the abduction and murder of an opposition journalist, Heorhiy Gongadze, whose headless corpse was found weeks after he disappeared in September, 2000. Gongadze had irritated the Ukrainian government with articles about corruption which, he said, reached all the way to the President, Leonid Kuchma.

Secret recordings of Mr Kuchma made by a former bodyguard indicate his angry orders to "take care" of Gongadze. Mr Kuchma says that the recordings are false, and denies any involvement in the journalist's death.

Gongadze's killers have not been caught. His relatives, colleagues, opposition politicians and journalists' defence groups long suspected orders for his elimination came from the President or close associates.

Documents were provided to The Independent by disaffected members of Ukraine's security organisations, angry their investigations were being suppressed. They said Mr Kuchma appointed the prosecutor general last year to cover up damning evidence. Many of the documents are extensive and detailed interviews with past and present agents for the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVS). Many say they were ordered by MVS General Oleksiy Pukach to spy on Gongadze from July until his disappearance.

They say General Pukach tried to destroy all evidence of the operation. Some believe the general, acting on political orders, engaged criminals to abduct Gongadze. One of the most powerful pieces of evidence is from Mr Honcharov, a former senior MVS undercover policeman, who was in custody last year on charges of working with racketeers.

He said the abduction and murder were committed by gangsters at the bidding of the MVS. He said the MVS minister, Yuriy Kravchenko, ordered Gongadze's killing on behalf of the President. He also predicted that he, too, would be killed and his death made to look like suicide or illness. Soon after, the authorities said he had become ill in an MVS solitary confinement cell and died in hospital last August.

But The Independent obtained a copy of a secret official autopsy showing Mr Honcharov was severely beaten and injected with a drug called Thiopental, which probably led to his death.

Mr Honcharov had said he knew where Gongadze's head is hidden, and that he had been threatened with death in jail by Serhiy Khamula, deputy head of the MVS organised crime unit.

The papers show the authorities knew that Mr Honcharov's death was suspicious and the prosecutor general questioned Mr Khamula about it. Documents from another Ukrainian intelligence agency confirm that Mr Pukach was in charge of the surveillance operation and was suspected by his deputy of improper contacts with criminals.

The prosecutor general's office has finally admitted the documents were genuine and said it was investigating the suspected murder of Honcharov.

Last October, General Pukach was arrested briefly on the orders of the then prosecutor general, accused of illegally destroying records to hinder their investigation, and to prevent identification of the team last monitoring Gongadze and who might have seen or been involved in his abduction. Soon after the general's arrest, the President replaced that prosecutor general and General Pukach was released.

And in another twist, the authorities announced they have a confession from a convicted killer they name only as "Mister K", that he murdered Gongadze. Critics say the authorities have claimed several times to have caught the killer, or killers, but no claim has been substantiated.