Kuchma cleared of murder charge

A UKRAINE court has thrown out a charge against former president Leonid Kuchma alleging involvement in the murder 11 years ago of an opposition journalist, ruling that secret tape recordings that appeared to incriminate him were inadmissible as evidence.

The general prosecutor’s office opened the criminal case against Mr Kuchma, president of independent Ukraine from 1994 to 2005, last March on suspicion of involvement in the killing of Georgiy Gongadze.

However, a Kiev court yesterday ruled as unlawful the prosecutor’s case which had alleged abuse of office, leading to the death of the journalist.

Mr Kuchma, 73, had denied any role in the murder of the 31-year-old campaigning Mr Gongadze, whose headless body was found in woods a month and a half after he was abducted in 2000.