Gongadze's Wife: Ukrainian Officials Could Solve Murder
September 09, 2005
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9 September 2005 -- Miroslava Gongadze, the widow of slain independent Ukrainian journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, said today that the authorities in Ukraine lack the will to solve her husband's murder.
"I must say that the ordinary investigators of the Prosecutor-General's Office -- not all of them but many of them -- have been trying to do their work conscientiously and they could have already solved this crime a long time ago," she said. "Surely, there has [previously] been no political will [to solve the Gongadze case], and it looks like there is still no political will to find those who ordered this crime even now."
The September 2000 killing of journalist Gongadze sparked protests in Ukraine and implicated then President Leonid Kuchma and other top officials. Kuchma has denied any part in Gongadze's death.
Ukraine's new President Viktor Yushchenko has repeatedly vowed to solve the case and in July prosecutors announced they had prepared a case against three men who allegedly murdered Gongadze, though nothing has been announced regarding if anyone ordered the killing.
Miroslava Gongadze fled to the United States after her husband's death but returned to Ukraine last week.
(AFP)
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