There is no hidden political motive in the arrest of Oleksiy Pukach, Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has told a press conference in Kyiv Thursday, ForUm informs, referring to UkrInform.
"There are no political reasons in the arrest right now. There is just a thorough work of the Interior Ministry Criminal Intelligence Office and officers of the Security Service of Ukraine," he assured.
All the same, Lutsenko did not rule out that despite absence of a hidden political motive in the arrest, the investigation process will be overpoliticized.
As reported, ex-chief of the Interior Ministry Main Department of Outdoor Surveillance and Criminal Intelligence Office, General Oleksiy Pukach, was arrested in Zhytomyr region on July 21, 2009. He had been on a wanted list for almost six years. After the arrest, he admitted complicity in murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
According to the investigators, Pukach had organized Gongadze's shadowing, he led a group of police officers who hijacked the journalist and he throttled Gongadze with his own hands.
Journalist Georgiy Gongadze went missing on September 16, 2000. Later, a headless body was found in Tarashcha woods nearby Kyiv. According to experts, the body was journalist's. In 2006, judicial proceedings against three former employees of the Interior Ministry started, namely against Mykola Protasov, Oleksandr Popovych and Valeriy Kostenko. They were brought an accusation against kidnapping and murder of the journalist.
