Court sentences Pukach to life for murdering Gongadze, disregards claims against Kuchma, Lytvyn

The Kyiv City Pechersk District Court did not question and investigate two other high-level former officials implicated in ordering the murder – former President Leonid Kuchma and his former chief of staff Volodymyr Lytvyn, now a member of parliament, despite the fact that Pukach numerous times alleged during the trial that the two ordered the murder.

“I will be satisfied when Kuchma and Lytvyn sit here next to me,” said Pukach in the courtroom responding to questions if he understands the court ruling. Both Kuchma and Lytvyn have always denied allegations of involvement in the abduction and murder of the journalist. The verdict took place in a tiny and poorly ventilated court room packed with police security and some 30 journalists. The months-long trial took place secretly, behind closed doors.

Pukach sat on a bench with a bottle of water, some pills and a small, worn-out prayer book, attentively listening to the five-hour verdict. He remained calm and focused through the ruling. Even when the judge announced his life sentence, Pukach’s facial expression did not change remaining stiff and reserved. His lawyer said the verdict will be appealed because it is too harsh.

The court ruled Pukach murdered the journalist on orders from his superior, former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko, who was seeking a career promotion.

Valentyna Telychenko, lawyer for Gonzadze’s widow, Myroslava, said they will appeal in order to make the court and the prosecutors find those who ordered the murder, dismissing the court’s finding that Pukach’s career advancement is a valid motive for the murder.

She believes the court was under pressure from unknown people. 

Kravchenko died in 2005 from two gunshots to his head the same day when he was due to show up for questioning by prosecutors in the Gongadze murder case. The authorities called it a suicide.

Telychenko finds it strange that the court took into account Pukach’s murder allegations about Kravchenko’s instructions to murder the journalist, but discounted the part where Pukach mentioned Kuchma and Lytvyn, two former higher level officials.

She told reporters that Pukach during the trial often had alleged Kravchenko, Kuchma and Lytvyn had colluded. Pukach, according to Telychenko, had identified them as those who ordered Gongadze’s murder, but the court despite her numerous petitions called neither Lytvyn, nor Kuchma for questioning in court.

Gongadze, a prominent Ukrainian journalist and a founder of the Ukrainska Pravda news website, which was critical of the authorities, went missing on Sept. 16, 2000.

Two months later his beheaded body was found in a forest outside of Kyiv. Shortly afterwards parliament lawmaker Oleksandr Moroz disclosed recordings allegedly made in then-president Kuchma’s office, which if true could tie him to the murder. The authenticity of the tapes has been disputed and Kuchma has always denied any wrongdoing.

The court did not consider the recordings as evidence since they were not conducted legally. In its Jan. 29 verdict, the Pechersk Court ruled that Pukach, who was at the time in charge of the internal affairs external surveillance department, kidnapped the journalist along with three subordinates in Kyiv, drove him outside the city where Pukach strangled him with a belt tied over his neck. 

Then they chopped off Gongadze’s head, burned and buried the body and the head in different places. Pukach confessed he murdered Gongadze, but said it was an accident as he was merely trying to harass the journalist to make him testify that he was spying for foreign countries.

The three other police officers who helped Pukach kidnap and murder the journalist were sentenced in 2008 to 12 and 13 years behind bars. The court also found Pukach guilty for kidnapping the journalist and for attempts to cover up the crime by ordering the destruction of documents, including illegal police surveillance of Gongadze before he was killed. The judge ordered that Pukach be stripped of all his belongings and his police general’s rank.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at onyshkiv@kyivpost.com