Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma was accused of involvement in the murder of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze by the parliamentary commission investigating the murder of Gongadze and other journalists on 3 September.

According to "The Financial Times" of 4 September, the commission called for law enforcement agencies to bring criminal charges against the president.

While Kuchma has been accused of involvement in Gongadze's murder for some two years on the basis of secret recordings made in his office by a member of his security detail, Mykola Melnychenko, this is the first time that parliament has pursued such action.

(RFE/RL 13.ix.02)