Murder suspect says former president ordered killing
Published:Wednesday | August 31, 2011 | 12:00 AM
KIEV (AP):
The main suspect in the brutal slaying of an investigative reporter in Ukraine more than 10 years ago alleged yesterday that former President Leonid Kuchma played a role in the killing, a lawyer said.
Olexiy Pukach, a former senior police official charged in the killing of Heorhiy Gongadze in 2000, testified in court that Kuchma ordered the slaying together with other top officials, according to Valentyna Telychenko, a lawyer representing Gongadze's widow, Myroslava.
The lawyer said that when Pukach was asked in court who had commissioned the killing, he named Kuchma and other senior Ukrainian officials.
The trial is closed to the public so Telychenko's account of yesterday's testimony could not be confirmed.