BY SHELLY YANG

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

 

A Ukrainian court dismissed charges against former president Leonid Kuchma of murdering a prominent journalist in 2000, saying that the crucial evidence- secretly taped audio recordings were obtained illegally, therefore “inadmissible”. Euronews reports:

“The prosecution has claimed one of the recordings indicated Kuchma has told officials to ‘deal with’ Georgy Gongadze….The ex-leader has always denied involvement in the killing, which became post-Soviet Ukraine most notorious criminal case. It also proved to be a turning point for Kuchma, who was swept from power in the Orange Revolution in 2004.”

Ukrainian media KyivPost describes the hearing as a “farce” and claims the judge, is apparently not shy about showing bias.

“Judge Halyna Suprun’s conduct was brutal. She refused to discuss petitions, refused to consider objections and cited her own unofficial sources of information, which are not admissible by law...She resorted to assessment of evidence in the case, despite the fact that, at this stage, the court is not entitled to consider the available evidence in the criminal case.”

Russia Profile says this dismissal is a reminder that the system under President Viktor Yanukovych serves political ends.

“It is but another classic example of the authoritarian Yanukovich regime micromanaging courts to its advantage amidst a political environment in which democracy has been rolled back and power has been centralized in a very Russian fashion.”

However, it’s only the opponents of Mr. Kuchma who weren’t satisfied with the ruling. Ukrainian News says the ex-president himself says the courts did not do enough.

“… Kuchma insists on further investigation to establish who ordered the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze … [he] views the ruling of the Kyiv Pecherskyi District Court to close the criminal case against him as necessary but not enough.”

Kuchma’s case is running in parallel to the prosecution of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.