(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Leonid Kutchma, RSF expressed indignation over the measures taken by the Ukrainian judicial authorities to compel the mother of murdered journalist Georgiy Gongadze’s to bury her son’s corpse. “Mrs. Gongadze, and her alone, should decide whether or not to bury her son’s body, and when the event should […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Leonid Kutchma, RSF expressed indignation over the measures taken by the Ukrainian judicial authorities to compel the mother of murdered journalist Georgiy Gongadze’s to bury her son’s corpse.
“Mrs. Gongadze, and her alone, should decide whether or not to bury her son’s body, and when the event should occur. After months of displaying an ignominious attitude toward
Gongadze’s family, the Ukrainian authorities are once more demonstrating their contempt for his relatives and their impatience to bury this affair,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “We call on you to intervene personally to ensure that the Ukrainian Public Prosecutor’s Office reverses its decision about transfering the body,” added Ménard in his letter to the head of state.
RSF also asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in a letter to the Attorney General, to fulfil Alexandra Gongadze’s requests, most notably, a final autopsy on the body, in the presence of European experts, before the remains are buried.
According to information obtained by RSF on 31 May 2001 from Mrs. Gongadze’s lawyer, Andriy Fedour, the Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered the transfer of the body that has been definitively identified as Gongadze’s to the Kiev mayor’s office “for them to deal with.” If Mrs. Gongadze does not claim the body soon to bury it in her son’s hometown Lvov, it will be buried by the Kiev mayor’s office. Mrs. Gongadze sent a letter to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, stating that she was not refusing to bury her son, but that she was hoping that a final expert evaluation could be made by European experts.
