An international inquiry into the killing of Ukrainian journalist Gyorgy Gongadze has called on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to investigate his murder.
Gongadze, editor of the internet magazine, Ukrainska Pravda, was murdered four years ago, and his headless body dumped in a wood near Kiev.
A preliminary investigation, conducted on behalf of the International Federation of Journalists, the NUJ, the Institute of Mass Information and the Gongadze Foundation, claims serious breaches of human rights, as expressed in European conventions, have taken place in the Ukraine, which became an independent republic in 1991.
The inquiry was launched in November 2003 and a working commission was established to examine apparent failures of legal and judicial processes into the case.
“A new Council of Europe inquiry must widen its remit to deal with the failures of law enforcement, judicial and governmental procedures in Ukraine, that have contributed to the non-resolution of the case,” concluded the commission.
By Jon Slattery
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