Former Interior Minister Found Dead in Kiev

KIEV, Ukraine — Former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko was found shot to death in an apparent suicide Friday, just hours before he was to meet with prosecutors investigating the possible involvement of senior Ukrainian officials in the 2000 murder and beheading of a journalist.

Kravchenko, who headed Ukraine's national police forces under former President Leonid D. Kuchma, was found dead in an outbuilding near his home, with one or possibly two bullet wounds inflicted by his own gun, authorities said.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said there was reason to believe that the 53-year-old former minister's death was linked to the 2000 strangulation, beheading and gasoline torching of Internet journalist Georgi Gongadze, who frequently reported on alleged corruption in the Kuchma government.

If Kravchenko "died at his own hand, this could mean that he was afraid to take responsibility for the events surrounding Gongadze's death," Tymoshenko said. "If it's not -- and I don't know the details and can't comment -- it's an attempt to prevent true information about Gongadze's death from emerging."

Deputy Interior Minister Petro Koliada said preliminary findings indicated that "there is no doubt that Kravchenko committed suicide."

Asked if there was a suicide note, he replied: "There was something, but I'm not prepared to say what."

The case has raised a storm here in the Ukrainian capital because the former interior minister was one of the few people who could have proved or refuted long-standing allegations that Kuchma had ordered the journalist's killing. The former president has strongly denied any involvement.

"Before God, before the people, before my conscience, I'm clean," Kuchma told reporters Friday in the Czech Republic, where he had been seeking medical treatment at a health spa for several weeks.

He also denied that Kravchenko was involved in the journalist's death. "I knew him well. He would have never given that criminal order," the former president said. "Few people could have withstood the terrible pressure" Kravchenko was under in recent weeks.

Kuchma was expected to return to Kiev over the weekend, and said he would be prepared to meet with prosecutors.

The head of a parliamentary commission investigating corruption, Hryhoriy Omelchenko, repeated on Friday the results of his panel's inquiry. He said the findings showed that Kuchma had been a "co-organizer" of the slaying along with Kravchenko and other aides.