Former Ukraine interior minister found dead

Ukraine’s former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko was found dead today at his country house outside Kiev, officials said.

His death was an apparent suicide, said Inna Kisel, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry.

She refused to provide any other information, referring all questions to the General Prosecutor’s Office, but no one could be reached for comment there.

Kravchenko has been accused by the opposition of being involved in the killing of opposition journalist Heorhiy Gongadze. He was expected to give testimony today to prosecutors about Gongadze’s death.

Ukraine’s Segodnya newspaper reported that Kravchenko had been put under official surveillance in December.

Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun said on Wednesday that investigators had identified all four people involved in Gongadze’s 2000 death and knew who was the mastermind. He refused to identify the person who ordered the killing, however.

Two of the suspected killers are in custody, one is under orders not to leave Kiev and the fourth is on an international wanted list. All were employed by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.

Gongadze, who wrote about alleged high-level corruption, was abducted in Kiev in September 2000, and his decapitated body was found months later buried in a forest outside the capital. His death sparked months of protests against former President Leonid Kuchma, who the opposition alleged was involved in the killing.

Kuchma, who is currently at a spa in the Czech Republic, has denied any involvement.