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Ukraine Investigates Audio Appearing to Reveal Plot to Kill Journalist

Myroslava Gongadze

   Ukrainian authorities are investigating documents and audio recordings
   that appear to reveal a plot to murder Pavel Sheremet, an investigative
   journalist who was killed in a car bombing.

   Ukrainian police confirmed Monday that [1]they had received documents
   and recordings from 2012 in which anonymous people discuss a plot to
   kill Sheremet.The recordings have been passed to an expert for
   analysis.

   The news website [2]EUObserver alleged that the recordings are of Vadim
   Zaitsev, who at the time was chair of the Belarusian KGB, discussing
   plans in April 2012 with members of a special unit to kill perceived
   enemies of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, including Sheremet, who used
   to live and work in the country.

   In a [3]transcript of the recordings, published in English, a voice
   alleged to be Zaitsev's says: "We should be working Sheremet, who is a
   massive pain in the arse. We'll plant [a bomb] and so on and this
   [expletive] rat will be taken down in [expletive] pieces, legs in one
   direction, arms in the other direction. If everything [looks like]
   natural causes it won't get in people's minds in the same way."

   Sheremet, an award-winning investigative journalist who reported for
   the independent news website Ukrainska Pravda, was killed in a car
   bombing in Kyiv in July 2016. Ukraine's then-president, Petro
   Poroshenko, [4]said at the time that he believed the attack was an
   attempt to destabilize the country.

   Three people are on trial in Ukraine in connection with the killing.
   All three deny wrongdoing. Authorities have not determined who ordered
   the hit.

   Neither the Belarus Foreign Ministry nor its embassy in Washington
   responded to VOA's emails requesting comment.

   Colleagues shocked

   Audio allegedly of Belarusian secret services discussing an attack on
   Sheremet was a shock to the journalist's colleagues, Sevgil Musayeva,
   editor in chief of Ukrainska Pravda, told VOA. If found to be
   authentic, the audio would show foreign governments are able to work
   easily within Ukraine, she said.

   Musayeva said that while the audio was a surprise, she always believed
   that Russia or Belarus might have been behind the killing.

   "We have never rejected the version that foreign intelligence services
   were involved in Pavel's murder," Musayeva said, referring to Russia
   and Belarus.

References

   1. https://www.npu.gov.ua/news/Informacziya/naczpolicziya-otrimala-v-rozporyadzhennya-informacziyu-shhodo-mozhlivix-zamovnikiv-vbivstva-pavla-sheremeta/?fbclid=IwAR1V-sWBme9aHE57vIVoccXK594J9rxWjzCVXV2kBxhlqHJiOir3pXxvDD8
   2. https://euobserver.com/foreign/150486
   3. https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/euobs-media/5e3a72d4c983d9b0f0ade0152c51038d.pdf
   4. https://www.businessinsider.com/journalist-killed-in-ukraine-with-car-bomb-2016-7

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