The statements made by Yuri Smyrnov, Minister of Internal Affairs, and Mykhailo Potebenko, Prosecutor General, in Verkhovna Rada last Friday added new touches to the Gongadze case. First, inside the car of the likely murderers there was some soil chemically identical with the soil at the place where the Tarashcha corpse was found; secondly, there is eyewitness evidence about some circumstances, allegedly passed on by an alleged witness of the murder; and thirdly, this supposed eyewitness is dead. This was revealed by Mr. Potebenko who emphasized that “it is too early to say that the evidence is convincing.” Nevertheless, the Gongadze murder version advanced by Minister Smyrnov earlier on May 15 is, in Mr. Potebenko’s opinion, “the most plausible one,” which is further confirmed by the fact that the alleged killers had in their pockets a detailed plan of the Tarashcha body’s location, which the minister had also disclosed some time before. “I have so far no grounds to say that the murder of Gongadze has been solved,” the Prosecutor General said. At the same time, he pointed out that the Minister of Internal Affairs had no right to announce that the Gongadze murder was solved because the case is being handled by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
In his turn, Mr. Smyrnov announced that his previous information on the solution of Heorhy Gongadze murder was a “personal position” based on the results of search and investigation and admitted it had been “premature in such a form,” because, from the perspective of law, only a court can pronounce one guilty of committing a crime. “In other cases, with respect to other crimes, this kind of information was quite acceptable: it dealt with the versions mentioned linked with a certain Cyclops, which the prosecutor’s office had also reported earlier,” the minister said.
Mr. Smyrnov also noted that this version has now been given an impetus and, after the Prosecutor General’s Office has made some investigative efforts, is to come to “its logical end and not only in the police investigation sense.” He believes that another set of operative efforts must be made to achieve absolute clarity. A police task force works in constant contact with the prosecutors, the minister said.
Mr. Smyrnov also pointed out that other actions are being taken to solve this crime. “We are studying the role of some well-known criminal groupings and killers inclined to commit this kind of crime. One of them is being screened for being implicated, and it has in fact been proved that he committed ten contract murders,” he said. The minister also announced that police “are screening killers detained in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, who may be implicated in the Gongadze murder judging by their criminal technique.” Also being looked into is the “Chechen trail” (an alleged conflict between the journalist and the Chechens over Gongadze gathering information about the Chechens purchasing “military materiel on the territory of Ukraine”).
Mr. Smyrnov disclosed figures testifying that, as part of the Gongadze case investigation, law enforcement officers have spent about 300 man-days on official business trips to various cities of Ukraine, Russia, and the Transcaucasus. According to him, 3,000 police have been involved in search operations alone. Close contact has been maintained with Interpol. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has also complied with 29 Prosecutor General’s instructions to check seventy leads.
Answering a deputy’s question, Mr. Smyrnov said he was launching an additional internal inquiry into reports that Gongadze was shadowed by a car with a police number plate. The minister also confirmed that none of the people’s deputies was exerting pressure on the law- enforcement bodies which take part in the investigation of this case. “All deputies are equally interested to see the truth found, to have all i’s dotted and t’s crossed and society relieved of tension as fast as possible,” he stressed.
COMMENT
Oleksandr LAVRYNOVYCH, chairman, ad hoc parliamentary commission investigating the Heorhy Gongadze disappearance:
“Out of the information we heard from the rostrum, I can only single out the fact that the Minister of Internal Affairs corrected his mistake: he explained his view within a context that shows him as understanding that he had had no right to make such statements. He made public no new information, perhaps remembering that he is not authorized to disclose any details of the case without a special decision of the investigator or the supervising prosecutor. As to the speech by Mr. Potebenko, the new investigative information he disclosed could be serious evidence if expert examination was really held, but this can only be taken into account together with other expert examination data and evidence. I agree with the Prosecutor General that we cannot say today that the case is closed. We can only say there is additional information to be assessed from the standpoint of one version or another now being checked. I want to repeat that our investigative commission works within the framework of the status of a people’s deputy of Ukraine, observes Verkhovna Rada procedural rules, and performs the function of public influence, so that investigation is carried out as minutely as possible and that no evidence related to this case is lost for any reason. I think, unfortunately, that the Gongadze case is going to last for a very long time and I can only to hope that the crime will be solved sometime.”
