Israel
Extradition request denied for key witness in Ukrainian journalist's murder investigationPosted Feb 2 2012
Israel has denied the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office an extradition request for a man who leaked government secrets in connection with the murder of a journalist, MSNBC reported.
Major Mykola Melnychenko, a former presidential body guard and officer of the Department of State Guard, fled Ukraine for Israel after he was charged in connection with the release of audio tapes said to implicate former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in the 2000 murder of investigative journalist Georgiy Gongadzez, according to the Ukrainian Kyiv Post.
Gongadzez’s reporting was critical of high-level corruption in Kuchma’s government. In November 2000, the journalist was found in a forest outside of Kiev, headless.
About nine years later, a former official of the interior ministry, Olexiy Pukach, confessed to strangling and then using an axe to behead Gongadzez, the BBC reported. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12849874 He said he was acting on orders from Kuchma.
A criminal case against Kuchma was dismissed by justices in late 2010 after key testimony and audio tapes recorded by Melnychenko were disallowed for being obtained illegally, according to Russian Ria Novosti. http://en.ria.ru/world/20120120/170864603.html An appeals court upheld the decision Jan. 20.
According to a March 2011 article in the Kyiv Post, Gongadzez’s widow’s attorney said she was certain the Prosecutor General's Office was “not in fact interested in authenticating Melnychenko’s tapes.”
Israel’s action prevents Melnychenko from facing prosecution in Ukraine for charges including divulging state secrets, abuse of office and use of forged documents.