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February 08, 2006

Yushchenko May Open Gongadze Trial To Public

Defendants Mykola Protasov and Valeriy Kostenko in court during the Gongadze trial, 19 December 2005 (file photo) (epa)

8 February 2006 -- Viktor Yushchenko's top aide has said the Ukrainian president is calling for the high-profile trial into a journalist's killing to be opened to the public.

Three former Interior Ministry officers are standing trial in Kyiv in connection with the 2000 assassination of opposition journalist Heorhiy Gongadze.


Yushchenko's chief of staff, Oleh Rybachuk, said he came to the courthouse today to convey the president's "indignation" at the court's decision last month to bar journalists from much of the proceedings.


Also today, the judges postponed proceedings after a defendant complained of a health problem.


Gongadze's decapitated body was discovered in a forest near Kyiv in September 2000. Many in Ukraine suspect then President Leonid Kuchma of ordering the killing.


Kuchma denies the charge.


(Interfax, AP)


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