The editor of the Kyiv Post, Brian Bonner, was reinstated to his post on 19 April after journalists for Ukraine’s leading English newspaper went on strike protesting his dismissal. Bonner was sacked on 15 April after publishing an interview with the Agricultural Minister which touched on the sensitive topic of grain export quotas. The newspaper’s British owner, Mohammad Zahoor, had pressured him to discard the interview.
Former president Leonid Kuchma is being investigated over the murder of opposition journalist Georgiy Gongadze. A criminal probe has been opened against Kuchma, according to a report by Ukrainska Pravda, which Gongadze founded. Georgiy Gongadze was often critical of Kuchma and his administration. He was kidnapped and murdered in 2000. In 2010 the prosecutors claimed that ex-interior minister Yury Kravchenko ordered the killing. Kravchenko is believed to have committed suicide in 2005. This investigation comes despite a court decision preventing such a probe.
The prosecutor general’s office has completed its investigation into the role that Oleksiy Pukach, a former intelligence office played in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and has announced is unable to lay any further charges despite evidence linking politicians to the murder. Pukach who at the time of the killing was the chief of the external surveillance department at the Ukrainian Interior Ministry will be put on trial in January. Gongadze was a Ukrainian journalist of Georgian descent killed in 2000. He was investigating high-level corruption allegedly involving senior officials, including president Leonid Kuchma. In March 2008, three former police officers were convicted for their role in Gongadze’s murder.
A witness in the case of missing journalist Vasyl Klymentyev has also gone missing. According to deputy editor Petro Matvienko, the key witness disappeared last week. He refused to reveal the person’s name for fear of jeopardising the investigation, but said he had verified the information with law enforcement agencies. The police department in Kharkiv claimed no knowledge of the witness’s disappearance. In a further development, Klymentyev’s lawyer was locked in his appartment by police. Officers forced their way into Vyacheslav Ismaylov’s home on 2 September, and barricaded him inside, saying they were investigating a case involving him. The newspaper lawyer fears that police could plant something in the appartment that would be compromising to him.