Mr. Kuchma came to the premises of his own free will for a fairly long questioning, says Vyacheslav Astapov, the top prosecutor's chief of PR. Investigators are keeping the records secret, he added, as quoted in the telecast.
There is no information whether the questioning also concerned the controversial death of Yuri Kravchenko, says Novosti/Ukraine news agency. Ukraine's former Interior Minister was found dead in his country house, Friday last, with two bullets through his head.
Georgi Gongadze, editor-in-chief of Ukrainskaya Pravda, prominent opposition on-line periodical, was reported missing in Kiev, September 16, 2000. Criminal proceedings were launched on suspected murder.
A beheaded body was found in the woodlands of the Taraschani District, not far from Kiev, early November the same year. Ukrainian and foreign forensic experts came together for identification. The body was the missing journalist's, the expertise said with 99.6 to 99.9 percent probability.
November 28 saw a shocking sensation as Alexander Moroz, Socialist Party parliamentary group leader, took the rostrum at the Supreme Rada (parliament) to make public sound recordings, which Nikolai Melnichenko, President Kuchma's bodyguard, had allegedly made in the President's office. Men with voices closely resembling Mr. Kuchma's, Vladimir Litvin's, Yuri Kravchenko's and Leonid Derkach's were discussing Gongadze's work. Vladimir Litvin was chief of presidential staff at the time, and Leonid Derkach Ukrainian Security Service chief.
The Rada urgently established an ad hoc team to delve into the journalist's death, parliamentarian Grigori Omelchenko chairing.
