Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz urged people’s deputies to ask the US Embassy to carry out an independent forensic examination of the body assumed by some to be that of missing journalist Heorhy Gongadze, reports Interfax Ukraine. He declared that the US Embassy is prepared to help examine the body unearthed in the vicinity of Tarashcha, not far from Kyiv, provided an official Ukrainian structure makes the request.
Mr. Moroz further proposed a special parliamentary hearing of the ad hoc committee of inquiry investigating the Gongadze case.
The said committee accepted the Socialist leader’s evidence on November 28, its chairman, Deputy Oleksandr Lavrynovych, told Interfax Ukraine, adding that Oleksandr Moroz submitted a statement, an accompanying letter, and an audio cassette.
Meanwhile, the SBU press center made a statement Tuesday night, describing the Socialist leader’s allegations about “SBU officers’ involvement in recording conversations of the highest-ranking officials” as a “rude provocation with all the elements needed for an offense under Article 125 (libel and slander) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.”
The SBU statement was forwarded to Interfax Ukraine. Among other things, the document reads that “the said provocation is aimed at distracting the public eye from the trial over Serhiy Ivanchenko, Oleksandr Moroz’s campaign worker during the last presidential elections, currently charged with an attempt on a group of People’s Deputies.”
A group of SBU officers directly in charge of communications in the premises of top officials regarded Mr. Moroz’s statement as “a gross calumny against the SBU and its staff, meant for the uninformed.”
The document, bearing eleven signatures, maintains that such an audio recording is technically impossible. “Every specialist with basic training is aware that wiretapping the communication channels and listening in on conversations in premises used by the political leadership is impossible in every respect: technologically, organizationally, and physically,” stresses the statement.
In the meantime, the Internet newspaper Ukrayinska pravda carried what is claimed to be a deciphered version of the audio cassette which Oleksandr Moroz allegedly received from the anonymous SBU officer.
On November 30 eleven deputies of the Ukrainian parliament, representing practically all parliamentary majority factions and groups, urged Ivan Pliushch, Speaker of Verkhovna Rada, to set up an ad hoc commission to investigate the claim of Oleksandr Moroz’s Left Center Alliance of the Socialist and Peasants’ Parties about what the appellants call “the so-called ‘customers’ contracting journalist Heorhy Gongadze’s disappearance.” These deputies also requested Mykhailo Potebenko, Prosecutor General of Ukraine, “to ensure a thorough inquiry” of the Left Center’s allegation.
The deputies are convinced the Socialist leader’s “‘sensational’ statement is an undisguised provocation aimed at raising his own popularity.” They demand that the name of the Security Service officer who allegedly handed the Socialist leader the recorded audiocassettes, ostensibly featuring this country’s top officials, be disclosed and that the officer be allowed to speak in parliament under guarantees of personal security.
Simultaneously, Mr. Moroz and editors of the Socialist Party organ, Tovarysh, said there are problems with its being published.
What is already obvious is mounting political tension in this country, with the outcome also depending to a large extent on the reaction of the international community. Alas, the destiny of Heorhy Gongadze himself is more and more slipping to the rear of political battles.
