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Resolution 1645 (2009)
Investigation of crimes allegedly committed by high officials during the Kuchma rule in Ukraine: the Gongadze case as an emblematic example
1. The Parliamentary
Assembly, recalling its Resolution
1466 (2005) on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Ukraine,
stresses the importance it attaches to the safety of journalists
and political activists, especially those linked to opposition groups,
in all member states of the Council of Europe.
2. Crimes against journalists and political activists must be
investigated by the competent authorities as a matter of priority,
without political interference. The authorities must strive to identify
not only the actual perpetrators of these crimes but also their
instigators and organisers, without regard to the rank and position of
the suspects.
3. As regards the Gongadze case, the Assembly welcomes the clear
language used by the European Court of Human Rights in finding violations
of Articles 2, 3 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights
(ETS No. 5) in its judgment of 8 November 2005. It stresses the
importance of the timely and comprehensive execution of this judgment,
which must include carrying out, without further delay, those investigations
the authorities had failed to perform.
4. The Assembly also welcomes the recent conviction of three
former Ministry of Interior police officers for the murder of Georgiy
Gongadze. However, it regrets the release from custody of their
immediate superior, General Pukach, and his escape from being arrested
again, as well as the untimely death of the former Minister of the
Interior, Yuriy Kravchenko, all in unclear circumstances.
5. The Assembly remains deeply concerned that no progress has
been achieved in holding to account those who instigated and organised
the murder of Georgiy Gongadze and reiterates its position that
the case cannot be considered as solved until the instigators and
organisers, in addition to the actual perpetrators of the crime,
are held to account.
6. The authenticity of the recordings, allegedly made in the
President’s office, of conversations pertaining to various criminal
acts (“Melnychenko recordings”) should be examined without further
delay in such a way as to allow the results of this examination
to be used as evidence in court, as the case may be.
7. The Assembly welcomes the readiness of the Ukrainian Prosecutor
General’s Office to allow foreign experts to participate in the
examination of the recordings and of the equipment used, a fact
which should encourage the witness in question to surrender these
items to the authorities in due course. Whilst regretting that it
took the Ukrainian authorities so long to launch an official request
for legal co-operation, it invites the requested authorities to
consider this request favourably, taking into account the technical
feasibility of undertaking such an expertise at this late stage.
8. Independently from their authentification, these recordings
can provide valuable leads to witnesses or other evidence which
should be exploited. Other investigative acts such as those proposed
by a team of investigators in October 2005 still remain to be carried
out, including an investigation of the circumstances in which two
senior officials, Mr Fere and Mr Dagaev, suffered strokes that permanently
incapacitated the former and killed the latter in 2003.
9. Regarding the crime against political activist O. I. Podolsky,
the Assembly welcomes the conviction of the former police officers
who admitted their guilt. However, in view of the parallels with
the Gongadze case, it considers that the instigators and organisers
of this crime must still be identified and brought to justice.
10. Other high-profile crimes, such as those committed against
Verkhovna Rada deputy O. S. Yelyashkevich and journalist I. Aleksandrov,
as well as the death in custody of I. Honcharov, the alleged leader of
a criminal gang within the Ministry of the Interior, further illustrate
the severe dysfunctioning of different law-enforcement bodies during
the Kuchma era and beyond.
11. Consequently, the Assembly invites:
11.1. the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office to use all possible
avenues of investigation to identify those who instigated and organised
the murder of Georgiy Gongadze and the other crimes mentioned in
paragraphs 9 and 10 above, in particular to:
11.1.1. pursue vigorously the authentification of the “Melnychenko
recordings”, with the participation of foreign experts;
11.1.2. pursue other available methods of establishing the authenticity
of these recordings, such as the interrogation as witnesses of persons
whose voices were allegedly recorded, and comparisons between discussions
allegedly recorded and actual events;
11.1.3. open a criminal investigation into the responsibilities
for the failure – established by the European Court of Human Rights
– to protect Georgiy Gongadze and to properly investigate his disappearance,
as requested by the Assembly in Resolution 1466 (2005);
11.1.4. investigate the circumstances in which General Pukach
was released from custody in 2003, and was later reportedly able
to avoid arrest in Israel, and to open criminal cases against those
responsible, as appropriate;
11.1.5. re-examine the circumstances of the death of the late
Minister of the Interior, Yuriy Kravchenko, and to also investigate
the possible crime of inciting a person to commit suicide;
11.1.6. interrogate as witnesses other senior staff members or
former staff members of the Ministry of Interior who may have information
on the special unit headed by General Pukach;
11.1.7. investigate the exact circumstances in which two former
senior officials, allegedly linked to the Gongadze case, suffered
strokes within a short period of time, resulting in the death of
Mr Dagaev and Mr Fere’s falling into a coma;
11.2. all the persons whose voices allegedly appear on the “Melnychenko
recordings”, to fully co-operate with the Prosecutor General’s Office
by providing voice samples for purposes of comparison and as witnesses;
11.3. the political leadership of Ukraine to refrain from interfering
with the investigation into the instigators and organisers of the
murder of Mr Gongadze and other crimes.
12. The Assembly resolves to continue following the above-mentioned
cases in the framework of its monitoring procedure concerning Ukraine.