Latest twist in Gongadze case: deceased officer, apparently a key witness, speaks in last testament (08/17/03)

Latest twist in Gongadze case: deceased officer,
apparently a key witness, speaks in last testament

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - National Deputy Hryhorii Omelchenko stated on August 8 that the last testament of a recently deceased former Ukrainian state militia officer, Ihor Honcharov - in which he allegedly confessed that he was the former head of a special militia force responsible for the murder of journalist Heorhii Gongadze - is authentic, as confirmed by the late officer's parents.

"Honcharov's parents categorically stated that the letters are written in the style of their son," asserted Mr. Omelchenko after a meeting with them. He added that he would have the documents verified by handwriting experts.

Mr. Honcharov, an ex-colonel in the state militia and a member of Kyiv City Anti-Corruption and Organized Crime Task Force, died while in pre-trial detention on August 1, which his parents and lawyers claim came as a result of severe beatings he received while in confinement.

Mr. Honcharov was hospitalized on July 30. His body was cremated only two days after his passing, with no autopsy and no explanation as to the cause of death.

Mr. Honcharov's attorney admitted that his client's health had been in decline over the last year and that he had been hospitalized previously, reported Interfax-Ukraine.

The Procurator General's Office said it could not comment on the events because they were still being investigated.

Mr. Honcharov was arrested last August on charges that he was involved with a criminal gang that had operated in Kyiv, kidnapping at least a dozen individuals and murdering them even after ransoms were paid.

After Mr. Honcharov's death, the Institute of Mass Information, a non-profit media watchdog organization, announced that it had in its possession a document from the ex-colonel with the imprint, "Open after my death." It noted that in the testament, Mr. Honcharov wrote that he was in good health, had no plans to commit suicide and did not expect to die soon.

An excerpt from the diary-like writings, which were posted on the IMI website stated:

"Despite the psychological pressure that I am experiencing from the investigators of the Procurator General's Office, despite the death threats from inmates - I do not intend to commit suicide as many are hoping I will - I would like to inform you that I am receiving more and more threats that I will be killed and that it will be presented as a suicide, or that I died as a result of an illness."

Mr. Honcharov admitted in his writings that he was the head of a gang of renegade militia officers, known as the Band of Werewolves, who kidnapped and killed for money.

Coincidentally or not, on digital recordings that allegedly implicate President Leonid Kuchma in ordering the disappearance of Mr. Gongadze, which have come to be know as the Melnychenko tapes, there is a moment when a voice, allegedly that of then Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Kravchenko, states that an elite force exists within his ministry that will do anything demanded of it.

The Institute of Mass Information stated that in the letters it received Mr. Honcharov disclosed that, as the head of the special unit, he was ordered to murder the young Ukrainian journalist who was a strong critic of President Kuchma. Mr. Gongadze mysteriously disappeared on September 16, 2000, and his decapitated body was discovered in a wooded area outside the town of Tarascha, near Bila Tserkva, some two months later.

In the letters, Mr. Honcharov was apparently very specific as to the involvement of certain special forces of the state militia in murder and his intention to come clean regarding his role. Another excerpt notes:

"Apparently this is related to my statements that I intend to speak in court about a number of crimes planned and committed by officials of the Internal Affairs Ministry and the organized crime bureau of Kyiv, as well as the Sokil Unit [of the Ministry of Internal Affairs], which is part of the system. Also [it is] related to my intention to name the people who organized the kidnapping and the murder of journalist Gongadze. In court I intend to testify in the presence of journalists because I do not trust the investigators of the Procurator General's Office."

The author of the letters states that he had hard evidence on the individuals involved in the journalist's death, including taped confessions, videotape and photographs, which he said he "had buried in a metal container in an attaché case inside a sack." In the published part of the confession, the name of the person who knows the specific location of the evidence is deleted.

While publishing only a portion of the text the IMI forwarded copies of the handwritten 17-page document to the Procurator General's Office and to National Deputy Omelchenko, who is chairman of the ad hoc parliamentary Committee on the Investigation of the death of Heorhii Gongadze and leader of the Anti-Mafia parliamentary caucus. Another copy went to the Office of the Ombudsman of the Verkhovna Rada with a request that Ombudsman Nina Karpachova look into the allegations of beatings of Mr. Honcharov by prison guards and state militia officers.

The Procurator General's Office has said that it has yet to determine the authenticity of the documents, but that the letters contain little new information on the death of Gongadze.

The Institute of Mass Information is funded by George Soros' Renaissance Foundation. Among its partners, as listed on its website, are the U.S. Embassy-sponsored program Fund for Mass Media and the National Trade Unions of Great Britain and Ireland as well as the international human rights group Reporters Without Borders.

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