The Murder of Gongadze: the New Head of the Supreme Court Explained Why Pukach Was Released
The new Chairman of the Supreme Court, Stanislav Kravchenko, said that the decision to change the measure of restraint to recognizance not to leave in 2003 for Alexei Pukach, convicted of the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, was made by the board of the Kiev Court of Appeal, in which he was, and Pukach himself, after being released from custody, did not go anywhere. ran away.
Source : Kravchenko’s interview with Ukrinform
Kravchenko’s direct speech: “Twenty years ago, when the Pukach case was being investigated, I worked for the first year in the Kiev Court of Appeal. I was a member of the collegium, but did not chair and was not a speaker on this case. who was in custody.”
Details: According to Kravchenko, at that time Pukach was accused of instructing the destruction of certain documents that could confirm that the Ministry of Internal Affairs was monitoring Gongadze, and not of the murder
The head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine believes that there was no influence on the court when making a decision, they were guided by the practice of the ECHR on the current Criminal Code of Ukraine at that time.
He also stated that after his release from custody, Pukach did not run away anywhere, but went to court and appealed against the decision to initiate a criminal case, respectively, his complaint was satisfied. “The case against him was closed on the basis of this decision, which passed the appeal and cassation,” Kravchenko said.
He added that a few months later, Pukach was charged with a new murder, and then he was already put on the wanted list. “I did not consider this case, so some media in this regard provide somewhat distorted information,” the head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine believes.
Recall : In 2017, lawyer Roman Maselko reported that two winners of the competition for the Supreme Court, Sergei Slinko and Stanislav Kravchenko, in 2003 released Aleksey Pukach from custody. He also published the decision of the Kyiv Court of Appeal on the release of Pukach from custody.
Background:
- Georgy Gongadze disappeared in Kyiv on September 16, 2000. In November of the same year, a headless corpse was found in the forest of the Kyiv region, which, according to experts, could belong to a journalist. In 2009, the remains of the skull allegedly Gongadze were found in the Kyiv region. Gongadze was buried on March 22, 2016 in Kiev.
- The publication in the autumn of 2000 of “Melnichenko’s tapes” led to a “cassette scandal” . Records from President Kuchma’s office testified to the involvement of Leonid Kuchma and other officials and politicians in the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze.
- On January 29, 2013, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv sentenced the ex-head of the surveillance department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Oleksiy Pukach to life imprisonment, finding him guilty of the murder of Georgiy Gongadze. The Court of Appeal upheld the verdict.
Source : Українська Правда
