The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine rejects the claim by the British newspaper "The Independent" that Prosecutor General Hennadiy Vasyliev is stalling the investigation in the Gongadze case.
"To date, neither the Prosecutor General's Office nor the Ministry of Internal Affairs has any official documents or appeals from persons involved in the investigation (of the Gongadze case) stating that someone is obstructing them from performing their official duties," said Serhiy Rudenko, head of the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office, at a briefing in Kyiv.
He commented skeptically on the article in "The Independent": "As for references to anonymous sources, to some mythical law enforcement officers, we regard (the publication) with great doubt."
At the same time, Rudenko said that the Prosecutor General's Office still wants to study the original of the publication.
When asked a clarifying question, he did not deny that the Prosecutor General's Office might not react to the article in "The Independent" at all: "Whether the publication will be checked or not – I will not state. If an investigator sees new data that needs to be checked – he will do so."
Rudenko stated that the Gongadze case "is being actively investigated, it has not been closed, and the composition of the investigative team has not changed."
To a question regarding Ministry of Internal Affairs General Oleksiy Pukach, who was accused of destroying documents in the Gongadze case, the spokesman of the Prosecutor General's Office said: "If there were evidence indicating the guilt of this person, then, apparently, appropriate investigative actions would be carried out regarding him."
Rudenko could not say what Pukach or UBOP officer Muzyka, who, as "The Independent" wrote, was a member of the "Kysel" gang and was involved in the murder of Gongadze, is currently doing.
"We do not conduct external surveillance of these persons. People are doing what they consider necessary," said the spokesman of the Prosecutor General's Office.
As is known, on Saturday "The Independent" published a major leak from the materials of the Gongadze case, which, in particular, quoted interrogations of a group of police officers who had been surveilling Heorhiy. They stated that the surveillance had been established on the orders of the head of the MIA's "stakeout" unit, General Oleksiy Pukach, and of Minister Kravchenko himself. The interrogation of Ihor Honcharov was also quoted, who stated that Gongadze had been killed on the orders of Kravchenko, who was acting on behalf of Kuchma.