Georgiy Gongadze
Georgian-Ukrainian journalist (1969–2000) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Georgiy Ruslanovych Gongadze[lower-alpha 1] (21 May 1969 – 17 September 2000)[1] was a Georgian-Ukrainian journalist and film director who was kidnapped and murdered in 2000 near Kyiv. He founded the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda along with Olena Prytula in 2000.
Georgiy Gongadze | |
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Born | 21 May 1969 Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union |
Disappeared | 16 September 2000 Kyiv, Ukraine |
Died | 17 September 2000(2000-09-17) (aged 31) Tarashcha Woods, Tarashcha Raion, Ukraine |
Cause of death | Murder by Decapitation |
Body discovered | 3 November 2000 |
Burial place | St. Nicholas the Embankment Church [uk], Kyiv |
Other names | Giya |
Citizenship | Ukraine |
Alma mater |
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Occupation(s) | Political activist, journalist |
Years active | 1989–2000 |
Known for | Founder of Ukrainska Pravda |
Spouses | |
Children | 2 daughters |
Parents |
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Family | 1 stepbrother |
Awards | |
Military service | |
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The circumstances of his death became a national scandal and a focus for protests against then-President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. During the Cassette Scandal, audiotapes were released on which Kuchma, Volodymyr Lytvyn and other top-level administration officials are heard discussing the need to silence Gongadze for his online news reports about high-level corruption. Former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko died of two gunshot wounds to the head on 4 March 2005, just hours before he was to begin providing testimony as a witness in the case. Kravchenko was the superior of the four policemen who were charged with Gongadze's murder soon after Kravchenko's death.[2] The official ruling of suicide was doubted by media reports.[2]
Three former officials of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's foreign surveillance department and criminal intelligence unit[3] (Valeriy Kostenko, Mykola Protasov and Oleksandr Popovych) accused of his murder were arrested in March 2005 and a fourth one (Oleksiy Pukach, the former chief of the unit[3]) in July 2009.[4] A court in Ukraine sentenced Protasov to a sentence of 13 years and Kostenko and Popovych to 12-year terms March 2008 (the trial had begun January 2006[5]) for the murder. Gongadze's family believe the trial had failed to bring the masterminds behind the killing to justice.[6] No one has yet been charged with giving the order for Gongadze's murder.[5]