Kuchma named in reporter's abduction

KIEV, Ukraine, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A Ukrainian parliamentary commission has concluded that former President Leonid Kuchma was behind the September 2000 abduction of a prominent reporter.

The headless body of Georgiy Gongadze was found in a wood near Kiev two months later.

Grygoriy Omelchenko, the head of the commission probing the murder, told Parliament his colleagues "unanimously identified" Kuchma as the organizer of the kidnapping, the BBC reported Tuesday.

The commission also unanimously recommended that Kuchma and two of his senior officials at the time should face criminal charges in connection with the abduction, Omelchenko said.

Kuchma, who was president from 1994 to 2005, has denied any involvement.

The discovery of Gongadze's body triggered a political scandal, especially after the emergence of a covertly recorded tape in which Kuchma was heard to complain about Gongadze's reporting and allegedly ordered his interior minister to "get rid of" the journalist.

Kuchma has maintained that the tapes were edited to distort his words.