"BBC": Court closes criminal case against Ukraine ex-President Leonid Kuchma.

Pechersk District Court in Kyiv dismissed a ruling of the Prosecutor's General Office to initiate criminal proceedings against the second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) on charges of complicity in the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze, Judge Halyna Suprun announced the decision.

Thus, the court upheld the complaint of Kuchma's lawyers on the legality of opening the criminal case.

In particular, the court agreed with the arguments of Leonid Kuchma's lawyers, who argued that in the context of a Constitutional Court decision of October 2011, charges cannot be based on the evidence obtained illegally. Therefore, the tape recordings made by former secret service major Mykola Melnychenko can not be evidence and grounds for prosecution.

Ukraine's former President Leonid Kuchma was charged with abuse of power and official authority, which subsequently led to the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze.

Gongadze went missing in Kyiv on September 16, 2000.

In November 2000, Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz unveiled recordings allegedly made by an agent of the State Guard Office Mykola Melnychenko in the office of President Leonid Kuchma, which confirmed the involvement of the latter in the disappearance of Gongadze.

In October 2011 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine made a decision under which the criminal charge can not be based on data obtained by illegal means.