By its dramatic pattern, the Appeal Court session in the Gongadze case on April 20 somewhat resembled that of February 6, when Oleksii Pukach, the chief perpetrator of the crimes against journalist Georgy Gongadze and pubic activist Oleksii Podolsky, made a sensational statement about blackmail and threats on the part of Pechersky Court judge Andrii Melnyk, public prosecutors Volodymyr Shylov and Roman Voloshyn, as well as Valentyna Telychenko, Myroslava Gongadze’s representative in court, as the case was handled in a court of original jurisdiction.
The session began with Podolsky’s request to read out a letter from US Congressman Steve Cohen, member of the US Helsinki Commission, to Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko. In this address, the US lawmaker calls on the Ukrainian president to make sure that a full investigation be conducted into the three high-profile cases which have long been under the US Helsinki Commission’s scrutiny – the abovementioned crimes against Gongadze and Podolsky and the attempt on the life of Oleksandr Yeliashkevych, a member of the 2nd- and 3rd-convocation parliaments. Besides, Cohen urged Poroshenko to receive Yeliashkevych and discuss the details of investigation.
At first judge Stepan Hladii suggested that Podolsky himself read out Cohen’s letter, only to hear a curt answer: “This is not an address to me. If the international community appeals to the Ukrainian state but its representatives do not even want to announce this letter, it is sheer nonsense. It makes no sense for me to read out the letter because I changed my ways long ago, while this letter is addressed to you as representatives of the old system, who do not want to change. Incidentally, I want to inform the court that the Helsinki Commission has invited me to the US, for they intend to hear me officially. And I want to warn you that I will tell them about the behavior of all participants in this trial.”
