Heorhiy Gongadze

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Heorhiy Gongadze

Heorhiy Ruslanowytsch Gongadze ( Ukrainian Георгій Русланович Ґонґадзе ., Scientific transliteration Heorhiy Ruslanovyč Gongadze , Georgian გიორგი რუსლანის ძე გონგაძე / Giorgi Ruslanis dse Gongadze , Russian Георгий Русланович Гонгадзе / Georgi Ruslanowitsch Gongadze ; * 21st May 1969 in Tbilisi , Georgian SSR ; † probably 16 September 2000 ) was a Georgian- Ukrainian journalist and the founder and publisher of the Internet newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda . He disappeared on September 16, 2000; on November 2 of the same year his decapitated body was found in the Kiev Oblast near the city of Tarashcha .

Life

Gongadse's father Ruslan Gongadze was Georgian, but also had French and German ancestors. He had studied architecture and later made a name for himself as a documentary filmmaker. Gongadse's mother Olexandra (nee Kortschak) comes from Lemberg ( Lviv ). The parents were divorced.

After graduating from school, Gongadze began evening classes at the Tbilisi Foreign Language Institute. From 1987 to 1989 he did his military service in Afghanistan - it was the last two years of the war in Afghanistan that the Soviet Union had been waging since 1979. After his return to Tbilisi in April 1989, Gongadze witnessed the violent suppression of a protest demonstration by Soviet security forces, in which 20 Georgians were killed. Outraged by the incidents and following the example of his father, who was the chairman of the National Democratic Party of Georgia, Gongadze devoted himself to political work: he first became head of the PR department of the Popular Front of Georgia.

In the autumn of 1989 Gongadze moved to Lviv, Ukraine, where he continued his foreign language studies at the Ivan Franko University . He took an active part in social life in Lviv, worked in the Ruch movement and a student association, and founded the Georgian cultural center Bagrationi (Баґратіоні). A first marriage with the Ukrainian Marjana Spychalska did not last long.

When Sviad Gamsakhurdia's regime in Georgia became increasingly authoritarian and undemocratic (Gongadze was on a list of enemies of the people as No. 28), a coup against the president took place in Tbilisi. Gongadze returned to his homeland to take part in the regime change process. After the victory of the putschists and the beginning of the Shevardnadze era in Georgia, he returned to Lviv in 1992 and began producing documentaries. When he went to Georgia in 1993 - shortly after his father's death - he was planning a documentary about the Abkhazia conflict . After a short time, however, he decided to put the camera down and pick up a gun. He was seriously injured by 26 shrapnel in a battle and flown to Sukhumi shortly before the city fell to Abkhazia. The Georgian armed forces suffered a heavy defeat in the conflict (see also: History of Georgia # Second Republic ).

From 1993 to 1994 Gongadze had its own program for Lviv local television and was active for the Center of Europe Society. He was also an employee of the newspaper Post-Postup (After Progress). During this period and the following years up to 1996, several documentaries were made, some of which were broadcast on Ukrainian television.

In 1995 Heorhij Gongadze married Myroslawa Petryshyn in Lviv; the two moved to Kiev and worked for various television productions until 1998. From 1998 to 1999 he was unemployed.

With the beginning of the presidential election campaign in 1999 , which led to the re-election of Leonid Kuchma , Gongadze started a daily live radio broadcast on the Kontinent broadcaster entitled The first [election] round with Heorhij Gongadze, whereupon threatening phone calls were made to the broadcasting line within a short time.

In June 2000, the journalist supported Volodymyr Wachowskyj's mayoral campaign in Vinnytsia , which he won.

Memorial plaque in Kiev at the House of Journalists : "Memory of journalists who gave their lives for the truth"

On April 17, the first issue of the Internet newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda appeared , in which Gongadze published, among other things, investigative-journalistic reports on the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and the people around him. The medium of the Internet was not very widespread in Ukraine at that time; the server recorded around 3000 visitors per day during these months. In June of the same year, the journalist first noticed that he was being followed and monitored and officially reported this to the Ministry of Interior on July 14, where his report was received.

At 10:30 pm on September 16, Gongadze left work and did not come home. Its mere disappearance caused great public concern; on November 2, the fears were confirmed and Gongadse's decapitated body was found near Kiev. Identification turned out to be difficult because the body had also been doused with acid. Among other things, the shrapnel from the war in Abkhazia that remained in the hand helped with the identification. The body was only released for burial by the authorities two years later.

A fragment of a human skull believed to have come from Gongadze was found in July 2009.

"Cassette Scandal"

On November 28, 2000, the MP and chairman of the Socialist Party, Oleksandr Moros , published tape recordings allegedly made by a secret service agent, from which, among other things, the planning of the murder of Gongadze emerged.

President Leonid Kuchma, Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko and the head of the presidential administration, Volodymyr Lytvyn , were accepted as participants in the recorded conversation . Kuchma denied the allegations. The Gongadze case drew wide legal and political circles and worsened Leonid Kuchma's domestic and foreign policy. Major demonstrations against the president and in memory of Heorhiy Gongadze took place in Kiev. In Ukraine, the incident has since been called the cassette scandal ; the exact circumstances of the murder were not clarified during President Kuchma's tenure.

Gongadse's widow Myroslawa and her two children have received political asylum in the United States .

New investigation

In January 2005, the newly elected President Viktor Yushchenko announced before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that the murder case would be re-investigated by the Attorney General. At the beginning of March, the public prosecutor's office said they had arrested two members of the security forces as alleged murderers of Gongadze and identified the client. On March 4, the public prosecutor wanted to hear Kravchenko, who was Interior Minister until 2001, as a witness; A few hours before the appointment, however, he was found dead in his summer home near Kiev.

Three years later, in March 2008, three former police officers were sentenced to long prison terms for their involvement in the Gongadze murder. However, the people behind it remained unknown and the alleged main culprit, the police general Oleksij Pukatsch , who had been wanted since 2003 , was at large. Pukatsch was finally arrested in July 2009 in a village near Zhytomyr . In September 2010, the public prosecutor announced that the investigation into Pukatsch pointed to Kravchenko as the perpetrator of the murder. In August 2011, Pukachenko named Kravchenko, Lytvyn and Nikolai Dschiga (at the time of the murder, first deputy of Kravchenko) as clients, Kravchenko had relied on instructions from President Kuchma. On January 29, 2013, Pukach was sentenced to life imprisonment in Kiev. During the trial he continued to testify that he had received the order to murder Gongadze from Kravchenko, and he remained true to his statement that Kuchma and Lytvyn were behind the crime.

As early as March 2011, the Kiev Public Prosecutor's Office decided to initiate an investigation against Kuchma. The allegations were of "abuse of office" and the issuing of "illegal orders" which "led to the journalist's murder". A Kyiv city court dropped the case in December 2011 on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges. The court did not admit the tape recordings as evidence because they were illegally made. Gongadse's widow's lawyer and the public prosecutor's office want to appeal .

Web links

Commons : Georgiy Gongadze  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Widow demands independent DNA test of skull fragment derstandard.at from July 29, 2009
  2. ↑ Ukrainian ex-minister involved in the murder affair found dead ( memento of the original from March 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. AFP notification dated March 4, 2005  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.soldan.de
  3. ^ Secret service in Ukraine arrested police general welt.de on July 24, 2009
  4. ^ Accusations against ex-Interior Minister of Ukraine nzz.ch from September 14, 2010
  5. ↑ A murder for the fatherland ukraine-nachrichten.de, August 31, 2011
  6. ↑ Judgment passed, journalist murder still unresolved. Life imprisonment for police officers in Ukraine ( memento from January 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de, January 29, 2013. Date of query: January 30, 2013.
  7. ^ Judgment in Ukraine: The Gongadze Conspiracy , Spiegel Online from January 30, 2013
  8. ↑ investigations for the image FAZnet, March 24th 2011
  9. ^ Proceedings against Ukrainian ex-President Kuchma discontinued newsroom.de from December 14, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Gongadze, Heorhij
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gongadze, Heorhij Ruslanowytsch; Ґонґадзе, Георгій Русланович (Ukrainian); Gongadze, Georgi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ukrainian journalist
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Tbilisi
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: September 16, 2000