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The murder of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze has been solved, President Viktor Yushchenko has told reporters. The suspects have been arrested and been giving testimonies, he said, without disclosing any names.

It was hard for me to believe that people who work for the government can be that beastly cruel towards their fellow countrymen. It was a horrible death, of which the murders’ testimonies are evidence. We now know how the journalist spent the last day of his life,” Yushchenko said. “Today it is most important to find the one who ordered the murder and who masterminded it. The investigators are dealing tightly with it.”



The Ukrainian president said the previous authorities had no political will to solve the case.



“Moreover, they provided cover for the killers,” he said.



Yushchenko promised that in the near future, when the investigation is over, Gongadze’s body will be properly buried.



“At last we shall be able to close the case,” he said.



Several suspected accomplices were detained last night, a reliable source in the law enforcement has told Tass. He would not specify where exactly the Ukrainian Security Service agents arrested the suspects. Several other accomplices are still at large and are being searched for.



The Ukrainian Security Service’s press-service has emphatically refused to make any comments on that score, saying that the proper investigation activities were in progress.



According to Ukraine’s fifth television channel three suspects have been detained.



“All of them are law enforcement officers having the colonel’s rank,” the television channel said.



Gongadze disappeared in September 2000. His body was found in a wood near Kiev two months later. His disappearance was followed by a political row over the then President Leonid Kuchma’s alleged involvement in the murder. Kuchma has dismissed all the charges.