This week will see a few events that will be directly or indirectly linked to the high-profile “Gongadze-Podolsky case.” It is these events that will determine the development of this issue in the near future. So, the 12th Annual Meeting of Yalta European Strategy (YES), which is organized by the Kuchma-Pinchuk family, will start on September 10. Later on the same day, UA: First TV channel will broadcast an interview which will see the slain journalist’s widow Myroslava Gongadze talking with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. As soon as the next day, September 11, the Kyiv Court of Appeal will restart the trial of Oleksii Pukach, the main perpetrator of the crimes against Gongadze and civic activist Oleksii Podolsky. However, the main event of the week will be held later on the same day, for September 11 will see the presentation of the new book from Den’s Library series at the Publishers’ Forum in Lviv, called “Trap,” or A Case without a Statute of Limitations, which focuses precisely on the Gongadze-Podolsky case. Why are all these events distinctive and important?
The August 31 hearing ended with another adjournment. This time, it was because of the need to get more time to review the case file, stated by Maksym Herasko, whom the judges call the new defense lawyer. Presiding judge Stepan Hladii said that the newly appointed Pukach’s counsel was reviewing the case file since August 21, unbeknownst to other trial participants till that moment. Having deliberated some more, the panel of judges decided to allow Herasko more time. The next hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m., September 11.
“Firstly, this Herasko should not be Pukach’s counsel at all, because the defendant did not agree to it, he still does not accept any lawyer other than Hryhorii Demydenko. The latter, meanwhile, is known to have been sick for a long time,” victim Podolsky commented for The Day. “Secondly, even if the judges should be allowed to commit this violation, how can this person review a multi-volume criminal case file in such a short time? Thirdly, they hold hearings without the only surviving victim, and my lawyers cannot be present either, because our contract stipulates that legal assistance may only be provided during court proceedings held in the presence of Podolsky... This trial has long ago turned into a farce, it has nothing to do with justice.” We covered the details of previous hearings in the Ukrainian-language article entitled “How Will Society ‘Digest’ the New Scandal?” (http://www.day.kiev.ua/uk/article/polityka/yak-suspilstvo-peretravyt-nov...).
Meanwhile, newly appointed lawyer Herasko already felt how unpleasant serving as the defense counsel of accused Pukach could be. His car was smashed in broad daylight, immediately outside the Kyiv Appeal Court’s premises. The lawyer went to the court in the morning to review the case file, totaling 143 volumes. He came out of the building in the afternoon, left photocopy of Pukach’s appeal brief in his vehicle and returned to the court to participate in another case. That evening, Herasko saw that windows of two doors of his car were broken. Nothing of value was taken, except for the Pukach case materials. “I think this amounts to pressure and intimidation,” Podolsky’s legal representative Oleksandr Yeliashkevych commented for The Day. “I do not know who Herasko even is, but instigators of high-profile crimes try to make the new lawyer their puppet in this way.”
Recently, ZIK TV channel broadcast program entitled “The Historical Truth with Vakhtang Kipiani: High-Profile Murders. Gia,” which had the murdered journalist’s widow Myroslava Gongadze as its guest. Despite the strong and thought-provoking preview of the broadcast, it came out rather ambiguous in the end. The common impression was that the program’s participants discussed this high-profile subject for the first time, raising long-answered questions. Antiquated versions and assumptions as well as the presence of some clearly biased experts hardly raised public awareness on the issue, but rather left the public even more confused.
While listening to the host and guest talking, we heard some answers which raised even more questions. “The problem is that Pukach has been in the dock for a long time, and his pre-trial detention will expire shortly,” Gongadze stressed in the interview. “So, there is a very great risk that we will have to let him go.” Is it true, though? Indeed, our law stipulates that if 15 years have passed since the commission of a particularly serious crime and the sentence has not yet entered into force, the accused should be absolved. However, this provision does not apply in the Pukach case, because he spent as long as 6 years in hiding. Thus, the limitation term was interrupted. Therefore, the court, and the authorities in general, still have many years at their disposal to finally put an end to this case.
“There is a politicization of the trial, carried out by victim Podolsky and his representatives,” Gongadze said replying to further questions of the presenter. “It looks like they try to just delay the trial. They attempt to draw into this matter... people such as the serving president, some political forces which are actually irrelevant to the proceedings. Who is interested in this happening? I do not know for sure, but there is some reason to believe that oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky is, in particular, for he believes that by using this case, he can fight the current government, the former government, some of his competitors.”
Here is one example out of many actions that delayed the trial. This writer has long attended the hearings and saw a completely different picture. According to victim Podolsky’s statement, later corroborated by Pukach himself, the defendant endured blackmail, threats, and intimidation during the trial court proceedings, committed by judge of Pechersk District Court Andrii Melnyk, prosecutors, and representative of Myroslava Gongadze Valentyna Telychenko, who demanded that Pukach blamed other individuals for instigating the crime. Podolsky’s party appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) and Court of Appeal judges to investigate this claim. However, both the PGO and the judges refused to do it so far. Of course, Pukach has to stay in jail, but how can one proceed to the case’s merits, if there is a failure to even investigate the abovementioned claims?
“Pukach is a hangman of the system and he must go to jail,” Podolsky explains. “He may help us find the perpetrators of the crime. This is the most important question. This is why I demand that Pukach’s statements about blackmailing and intimidation were investigated. Incidentally, during Yanukovych’s presidency the former oppositionist, current prime minister, Arsenii Yatseniuk stated that Pukach had been taken to Yanukovych’s residence. However, Valentyna Telychenko is categorically against this, because she herself took part in blackmailing Pukach. Correspondingly, she is doing everything, so that the Court of Appeal left the first instance verdict in force. This verdict was brought in by Kuchma’s judge, Andrii Melnyk, who was involved in intimidation of the accused as well.
Myroslava Gongadze in an interview to Kipiani says, “Kuchma is guilty because his words are on the tape. This is why I consider him guilty in Georgy’s death. Whether someone took advantage of the situation, or it was Kuchma’s direct order, I won’t assert.” But what are the practical steps? “Pukach was tried not for the murder at someone’s order, but for willful murder he committed following clearly a criminal oral order. So the verdict, if it comes to force, does not envisage that there were people who ordered it,” criminologist lawyer, candidate of law Anna Maliar explains. “The representative of the widow of the murdered journalist Valentyna Telychenko at first appealed against this qualification, because considered it an ordered murder, but has recently called off the appeal because, allegedly, 15 years since the day of murder will pass in September, and Pukach will be released from jail. [We have explained before that it is not true. – Author]. Why the side of Gongadze’s widow steps back from the demand to recognize that the murder was ordered is left to anyone’s guess.”
It should be reminded that “Melnychenko’s tapes” recorded the conversations concerning other crimes, the assault on MP of 1st and 2nd convocations Oleksandr Yeliashkevych, the kidnapping and beating of civil activist Oleksii Podolsky. The latter crime, as it turned out, was a rehearsal before Gongadze’s murder, so it was identical. So these crimes are connected by one chain, which leads to Kuchma’s Presidential Administration. At least this is what the tapes recorded, and the victims, Yeliashkevych and Podolsky, confirm this. So to say that someone set up Kuchma by killing Gongadze, or that it was organized by foreign special services, means spreading of versions created by those who ordered the crimes. Another question is that Gongadze’s murder was used later by some people for their interests.
Another important point is when Gongadze’s body will be buried. When the journalist’s mother was alive (died on November 30, 2013), it was impossible to do this, because she didn’t recognize that it was her son’s body, so didn’t give her permission to bury it. But why hasn’t this question been settled for almost two months? “We hoped that the appeal would be considered for 1-1.5 months, and when the process is over, I will be able to bury Georgy,” Myroslava Gongadze says in an interview. “I want to put an end to it. I want that all the murderers of Georgy go to jail. But this process started to be politicized, and I felt that wasn’t able to find time to do it right. Hopefully, the Pukach process will end soon, and we will be able to bury Georgy before the end of the year.”
“I don’t understand how the trial is related to the burial of Georgy Gongadze?” Oleksandr Yeliashkevych asks. “Previously Gongadze’s mother forbade to do this, but now there are no obstacles. How can the trial in a court of appeal impede the burial of Georgy’s body? Maybe Myroslava has some private interests connected with this. I want to believe it’s not true. Why is the final decision of the question connected only with Pukach, following the logic of Gongadze’s widow? What to do with those who ordered the murder? They are murderers too.”
Let’s go further. Citizens had quite logical questions to Myroslava Gongadze’s announced interview with President Petro Poroshenko. “We spoke about presidency, corruption, reforms, the war, and many other things,” Myroslava wrote on her FB page. She was immediately showered with questions from the followers of her page. “Did you ask him why he doesn’t allow subpoenaing Kuchma as a witness in Georgy’s case?” Tetiana Chernyshova asks. “I didn’t, because it would be a conflict of interests,” Myroslava Gongadze replies. This was followed by the reaction of our readers. Kristina Odesskaya: “But you should have. This is our sorrow too. People’s sorrow.” Yaroslav Ahasynsky: “Even if there would be a conflict, you should have done this. While Kuchma’s people are in power, there will be no investigation. Poroshenko and Yatseniuk are Kuchma’s people too.”
It is also interesting whether Myroslava asked Petro Poroshenko, how it happened that the one who caused the first Maidan, the one who brought Yanukovych to power, and he caused the second Maidan, after all went to the negotiations in Minsk and became a member of the Constitution Commission. We will find this out late on Thursday. So far it is demonstrative that the interview with the president will be released on the day the forum YES begins and before the court trial in Pukach’s case. Like former employee of Pinchuk’s TV channel ICTV, now an ardent Russian propagandist Dmitry Kiselev says, “Coincidence? Don’t think so.”
WHY THE YALTA EUROPEAN STRATEGY FORUM IS BEING HELD, AND WHAT THE PRESENCE OF DISTINGUISHED GUESTS AT THIS EVENT MEANS
This year’s YES Forum is signally entitled “At Risk: How New Ukraine’s Fate Affects Europe and the World.” It will take place in Kyiv from September 10-12. The name exactly reflects the state of the nation, for our country has entered the “risk zone” due to predations of the system led by Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yanukovych. Previously, these meetings took place in Yalta, Crimea, but the Kremlin’s annexation of the peninsula rendered the YES essentially homeless. This calls into question, among other things, the effectiveness of the strategy itself and that of planning behind all these annual meetings, to which a wide range of guests, including Russians, were invited. Now, though, the organizers have to hold meetings in the capital for the second year.
Who will come this year? This is always very important, so we will cover the forum’s participants in more detail. Thus, yes-ukraine.org offers following list: “Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission (2004-14); Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden (2006-14); Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations; Leonid Kuchma, President of Ukraine (1994-2005); Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005), Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the YES; Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, US Department of State; Carlos Pascual, Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, US Department of State (2011-14); Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General (2009-14), Prime Minister of Denmark (2001-09); Radoslaw Sikorski, Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (2014-15), Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland (2007-14); Javier Solana, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (1999-2009), member of the Supervisory Board of the YES... Yevgenia Albats, editor-in-chief and CEO of The New Times magazine; Ruslan Grinberg, director of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Bernard-Henri Levy, philosopher and writer, director of La Regle du Jeu magazine; Timothy Snyder, Professor of History, Yale University; Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (2007-11)...,” and the list of foreign guests goes on and on.
The 12th Annual Meeting of the YES will be formally opened on September 11 by President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. The second day of the YES Forum will be opened on September 12 by Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk. Apart from the president and the head of government, those present will also include: “Aivaras Abromavicius, Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine; Volodymyr Hroisman, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; Natalie Jaresko, Minister of Finance of Ukraine; Pavlo Klimkin, Foreign Minister of Ukraine; Andrii Pyvovarsky, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine; Valeria Hontareva, Chairperson of the National Bank of Ukraine; Mikheil Saakashvili, Head of the Odesa Oblast State Administration; David Sakvarelidze, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine; Dmytro Shymkiv, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine; Artem Sytnyk, Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine; Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv.”
Why is it important to list the main participants? The YES has long been a kind of a test, just as the meeting in Davos, also organized by the Kuchma-Pinchuk family for politicians, public figures, and journalists (both Ukrainian and foreign). “By attending events hosted by the Kuchma-Pinchuk, people show their attitude to the high-profile Gongadze-Podolsky case,” political prisoner of Soviet concentration camps, member of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th convocations of Verkhovna Rada Stepan Khmara commented for The Day. “All this indicates that corruption exists not only in Ukraine, and not only among Ukrainian officials. It should be borne in mind that the Kuchma-Pinchuk are among richest families in Ukraine. During his presidency, Kuchma has built not just clan-oligarchic structure, but his personal fortune as well, and it keeps increasing. Therefore, he tries to whitewash his reputation through holding these forums. As you can see, politicians, public figures, journalists can be bought not only in Ukraine, but also in the West. Meanwhile, presence of the serving president and prime minister of Ukraine at the YES events shows that they have direct connections to Kuchma. The latter’s participation in the Minsk talks and membership of the Constitutional Commission are proofs enough of that. Here you have the answer why Oleksii Pukach’s trial is being delayed, and no legal closure on the question of the crimes’ instigators has been achieved.”
ON JOURNALISTS’ SOLIDARITY IN THE GONGADZE-PODOLSKY CASE
The International Day of Journalists’ Solidarity was celebrated all over the world on September 8. It was a crucial, signal date for the Ukrainian journalism, because in just a week, each of us will have to ask themselves: why has our colleague lain unburied for 15 years, while his murder case has not been fully solved? Of course, the perpetrators must be punished for any crimes against journalists. However, it is the Gongadze-Podolsky case that has long been the symbol of impunity. It is successful completion of this case that can begin the process of cleaning the country from the effects of the Kuchma-Yanukovych system. Therefore, journalists must do everything to bring closer the truth’s triumph.
Unfortunately, the media have failed to show united front on the matter so far. “We must take into account that there was a pretty sad, but very real trend of the Gongadze case making progress only when it was in politicians’ interest,” independent analyst Ostap Kryvdyk commented for The Day. “Politicians were interested when journalists exerted powerful pressure on them. Unfortunately, dozens of minor issues have shifted the attention of the journalist community away from the Gongadze case. It is wrong. Journalists should show more perseverance and solidarity. The murdered man must be buried, and the perpetrators of the crime must be found and sentenced.”
It is this last sentence that expresses the essence of the matter. The media should focus their attention not on Ihor Kolomoisky, mentioned by Myroslava Gongadze in her recent interview and much-discussed by many journalists (although oligarchic conflicts are real), but on the perpetrators, who, having been long known to the public, should be punished. “1+1 TV channel, which offers most systematic coverage of the Gongadze case, finds itself accused of being a tool in an information war; people say that Gongadze’s name is being exploited by Kolomoisky for personal benefit,” chairperson of the board of the Maidan Monitoring Information Center Natalia Zubar stressed when talking to Den (No. 27, February 18, 2015). “But let us be frank: does it make a difference to the mass consumer of information, whether they see what they see due to ‘information wars’ or not? The main thing for us is to have important topics well-covered, but not drowned in empty talk. Therefore, I am all for any number of ‘information wars,’ provided that they make the media willing to present the facts and join the civil society in putting pressure on the justice system, so that instigators of the journalist’s murder are named to everyone’s benefit.”
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In order to counter the alternative reality, which is constantly created by makers of the present system, society must have access to true history. Why is this country, even after two Maidan protests, in a critical condition now, and how to get out of this situation? Den has prepared a response to this question in the shape of our latest essay collection, entitled “Trap,” or A Case without a Statute of Limitations, which equips citizens for the fight for justice. Note that the day of the book’s launch, September 11, is also the date of another hearing in Pukach’s trial. Let us assume that all these events and coincidences (the YES Forum, Vakhtang Kipiani’s program that featured Myroslava Gongadze, and broadcast of the latter’s interview with the president) will serve as a good promotion campaign for the latest addition to Den’s Library book series.
P.S.: Therefore, we are waiting for you at the Publishers’ Forum, to be held in Lviv from September 10-13, at the stand No. 305, where you will be able to browse through and buy our new books. The books’ presentation as well as meetings and talks with Den/The Day’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna and our authors will take place in the Mirror Hall of the Potocki Palace at 12:30 p.m. on September 11.
