Fragments of Skull Found: Likely Belong to Murdered Ukrainian Journalist

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian investigators say they have uncovered fragments of a skull they believe belong to Georgiy Gongadze, a journalist who was decapitated nine years ago. The find came less than a week after a former Ukrainian general, Oleksiy Pukach, was arrested in connection with the murder. 

      
Photo: Georgiy Gongadze [Source: AP]

Spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), Yuriy Boychenko, reported that the skull was found in a village outside of Kiev. The discovery came just days after the authorities arrested a key suspect who allegedly promised to lead the police to the location of Gongadze's head.

PGO press service told Interfax-Ukraine: "The fragments of a skull, which could belong to journalist Georgiy Gongadze, were found outside the village of Sukholisy in Bila Tserkva district, Kyiv region, on Tuesday."

Investigators were only able to recover fragments of the skull. According to Interfax-Ukraine, a source has said that a road was built over the spot where the skull fragments were found.

Gongadze was an investigative journalist who exposed high level corruption. He focused upon Ukraine's political elite, and was an outspoken critic of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Gongadze was abducted in September of 2000 and found murdered in a forest outside of Kiev in November of that year.

General Pukach was the head of the interior ministry's surveillance department during Kuchma's presidency. Police are alleging that Pukach, himself, strangled Gongadze. Ukrainian investigators say that Pukach confessed to the killing after he was arrested on July 21, 2009 after having spent the past several years on the run. On July 23, 2009 a district court in Kiev remanded Pukach into custody for two months. 

Prosecutor General, Oleksandr Medvedko has refused to comment on whether Pukach has named those who ordered Gongadze's murder, but said that a "secret investigation" was underway.

 
Photo:  Oleksiy Pukach, who allegedly confessed to Gongadze's murder last week. [Source: AFP]

Three former officials of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's foreign surveillance department and criminal intelligence unit were convicted of Gongadaze's murder in 2008, but Gongadze's family has always claimed that those responsible for the murder were higher up in the government.

Shortly after the 2000 killing, recordings made secretly by a member of President Kuchma's personal guard were released. These recordings include a conversation between Kuchma and the former interior minister, Yuri Kravchenko, discussing ways in which to remove Gongadze.

Kuchma denied any connection to the murder of Gongadze, but does not deny that the voice on the recording is his. Kravchenko was later found dead, allegedly of suicide. The tapes sparked months of protest in Ukraine, ultimately leading to the ousting of Kuchma in the Orange Revolution.

The body has yet to be buried as the journalist's mother, Lesia Gongadze, refuses to bury her son without his head.

For more information, please see:

AP - Skull pieces found in Ukraine likely journalist's - 28 July 2009

BBC - Ukraine finds 'reporter's skull' - 28 July 2009

Interfax-Ukraine - Source: Fragment of Gongadze's skull found - 28 July 2009

Kyiv Post - Prosecutors say examination will confirm whether fragments of skull belong to Gongadze - 28 July 2009

 

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