The former interior minister was found dead in his home Friday, an apparent suicide
Published:
5 March 2005 y., Saturday
The former interior minister was found dead in his home Friday, an apparent suicide, just before he was to be questioned about the 2000 slaying of an investigative journalist, dealing a blow to an inquiry that could implicate the former president.
Former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko suffered two gunshot wounds to the head, a TV station reported he left a note blaming his suicide on former President Leonid Kuchma "and his entourage," and the journalist's widow suggested it was all part of a cover-up to protect "the old regime."
President Viktor Yushchenko, who has made solving the murder of journalist Heoriy Gongadze a moral obligation for his new administration, ordered the current interior minister and prosecutor general to take over the investigation.
Kravchenko, 53, had been implicated in organizing the killing of Gongadze, who wrote about top-level corruption under Kuchma.
The killing of Gongadze - who was found decapitated in a forest outside the capital in 2000 - sparked months of protests against Kuchma. The opposition alleged Kuchma ordered the killing.
Kuchma again denied any involvement Friday.
"Before God, before people, before my conscience, I'm clean," Kuchma told reporters at a spa resort in the Czech Republic. He said he would return home Saturday and was prepared to talk to prosecutors, Czech and Ukrainian TV reported.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Inna Kisel said Kravchenko's death "appears to be a suicide." He died at his country residence outside Kiev.
Šaltinis:
thestate.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Hundreds of New Yorkers enjoy a dip in rubbish dumpsters that have been converted into swimming pools as part of the city's summer initiative.
more »
On 19 July, a school, which had been reconstructed with the funding from Lithuania’s Special Mission in Afghanistan, was opened in the village of Suri, the Zabul Province in the South of Afghanistan.
more »
Self-employed workers and their partners will enjoy better social protection – including the right to maternity leave for the first time – under new EU legislation that enters into force today.
more »
A 45 U.S. dollar garage sale purchase turns out to be long lost Ansel Adams negatives worth 200 million dollars.
more »
A Turkish toddler survives a three-floor fall from a balcony when he lands on a stack of plastic pipes.
more »
Around 200 Magellan penguins, most of them dead, wash up on Uruguay's beaches.
more »
Europeans are calling on Member States to boost their efforts to improve road safety, according to a survey published by the European Commission today.
more »
With an increase in life expectancy in China has come an accompanying rise in dementia cases, which may leave the younger generation struggling to cope with treatment and care.
more »
These baby sea turtles should be swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, but instead they are recovering at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi.
more »
Reviving the Latin American tradition of the afternoon siesta, a hotel in Argentina brings siesta to the corporate workforce.
more »