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CPJ: Concern Over Life Sentence Appeal in 2000 Murder of Ukrainian Journalist

RFE/RL Ukrainian Service

   The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has
   "expressed concern" over the possibility that a former Ukrainian police
   general who confessed to the murder of a journalist may have his life
   prison sentence commuted.

   Oleksiy Pukach, who once headed the surveillance department of
   Ukraine's Interior Ministry, was sentenced in January 2013 for the
   murder of Heorhiy Gongadze 13 years earlier on September 16.

   After his disappearance that day, Gongadze's beheaded body was found
   two months later in a forest near Kyiv that sent shock waves through
   society and prompted immediate calls for a thorough investigation.

   Pukach, meanwhile, has given conflicting accounts over the years, and
   has been appealing his life sentence for the past six years.

   His next appearance before the Supreme Court is on October 9, which is
   when he could be freed.

   "Nineteen years after the brutal murder'¦of Gongadze, there are
   concerns the confessed killer may go free. Ukrainian authorities should
   not allow impunity for journalists' killings to reign," said Gulnoza
   Said, CPJ's European and Central Asia program coordinator. "There must
   be full justice'¦and the masterminds must also be held accountable."

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