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Ukraine journalist killers jailed | Ukraine journalist killers jailed |
(30 minutes later) | |
A court in Ukraine has sentenced three former police officers to prison for the murder of investigative journalist Georgiy Gongadze. | A court in Ukraine has sentenced three former police officers to prison for the murder of investigative journalist Georgiy Gongadze. |
Mykola Protasov was given a sentence of 13 years, while Valeriy Kostenko and Oleksandr Popovych were each handed 12-year terms. | Mykola Protasov was given a sentence of 13 years, while Valeriy Kostenko and Oleksandr Popovych were each handed 12-year terms. |
Mr Gongadze's death, in 2000, sparked widespread protests in the Ukraine. | |
His family said the high-profile trial had failed to bring the masterminds behind the killing to justice. | His family said the high-profile trial had failed to bring the masterminds behind the killing to justice. |
Thirty-one year-old Mr Gongadze was an outspoken critic of the former regime led by Leonid Kuchma. | |
He was abducted in September 2000 and his headless body was found two months later buried in a forest. | |
The killing triggered a political scandal, especially after the emergence of secretly recorded tapes that allegedly implicated Mr Kuchma. | |
The former president, who was in power until 2004, denies any involvement. | |
Protasov, Kostenko, and Popovych were tried for the actual killing. | |
But investigations have failed to show who ordered the murder. | |
Oleksiy Pukach, another suspect who was the former chief of the Interior Ministry's surveillance department, is believed to have fled abroad and is being sought on an international arrest warrant. | |
The demonstrations that followed Mr Gongadze's killing culminated in the popular uprising known as the Orange Revolution, which brought the current president, Viktor Yushchenko, to power. |