The Kyiv Court of appeals on Tuesday will continue the hearing of the appeal against the sentence to the former head of exploration and observation of the Ministry of internal Affairs of Ukraine Alexey Pukach, who was sentenced to life in prison for taking the life of journalist Georgy Gongadze.

The court proceeded to consider the appeal in February 2015, but since then it has not moved forward. For a long period of time, the Court resolved technical issues, for example, was defined in which format to consider the Case is open or closed. Later meetings many times postponed because of issues with the health of Pukach's lawyer.

The initial production was combined 3 of the appeal - the family lawyer of Gongadze Valentina Telichenko, Pukach's lawyer Gregory Demidenko and journalist Oleksiy Podolsky.

lawyer Pukach Demidenko asked in a persistent form of cancellation of the sentence and the case for further investigation, the complaint of the lawyer of Gongadze family Telichenko relate only to the incompleteness of the establishment in the judgment of the motives of iniquity, for example, the absence in the verdict of the paragraph about the fact that the murder was committed in order. When this reporter Podolsky, some time ago also abducted by Pukach, but escaped, sought a full review of sentence to ascertain customers of iniquity.

currently, the court only two complaints, as Telichenko June 4, the complaint was withdrawn because of concerns that in case of its satisfaction Pukach may rise up to freedom.

The fact is that until not completed the consideration of appeals, the verdict of the Pechersk district court of Kyiv from 2013, which was condemned Pukach, is considered not to set foot into legal force. If the Court is satisfied at least one complaint and send the Case for further investigation, Pukach have the opportunity to release concerns a lawyer.

In addition, another argument in addressing the protection of the family Gongadze was the fact that the General Prosecutor's office in the beginning of the year resumed the trial on the Gongadze case, in which the work on establishment of customers of iniquity.



Gongadze in April, 2000, he founded the Internet-the edition " Ukrainian truth ", in which very quickly criticized the policies of former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. A few months Gongadze reported the Prosecutor's office about the unknown threats to your own address. In September of the same year, a journalist, disappeared without a trace. Two weeks later his decapitated body was found in a forest near Kiev.

A few years Pukach was hiding from law enforcement, but in 2009 he was placed behind bars. In the course of the investigation, the former head of the Department for external intelligence service of the Ministry of interior admitted that he personally strangled the journalist at the direction of then head of the Ministry of internal Affairs Yury Kravchenko. The court in its own sentence showed that Pukach committed the murder, wanting to move up the career ladder. Mention About custom-made character of murder in the sentence was not.

The main intrigue of the murder of Gongadze in that to it have the opportunity to be a part of the former Commissioners of the higher echelons of government. The media many times accused law enforcement agencies in the reluctance to investigate the Case as establishing the customers of the murder. According to one version, so the government is trying to help protect the liability of high-ranking ex-officials.

About possible of belonging to the deprivation of life Gongadze former leadership of the country indicate audio ex-the major of state protection Nikolay Melnichenko, as if made at the office of the President Kuchma. To record the voice, like the voice of Kuchma's orders to "deal" with the journalist. In addition, the authenticity of the records has until now not been reliably established.

In addition to the involvement of Kuchma and the head of his presidential administration and later speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn specifies the message Pukach, who after the verdict in the Pechersk district court of Kyiv has said that he thinks the assassination exactly Kuchma and Litvin.

sections: Politics