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Western Detectives Asked to Help Investigate Scandal: Kuchma
Ukraine has asked Western private detective agencies to assist in investigating the so-called " cassette scandal", President Leonid Kuchma said Monday in Kiev.
According to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kuchma disclosed in an interview with Polish reporters that the detective agencies would work independently of the investigation being conducted by the Ukraine's Public Prosecutor General's office and other official bodies.
He said he did not know who is behind the scandal, and alleged it could have been conspired by the forces inside or outside of the country.
Kuchma described the security officer, Mukola Melnichenko, who allegedly tapped the president's office, as a "spy" and "betrayer".
Kuchma's remarks came at the center of a political scandal triggered by the disappearance of an opposition journalist, Georgy Gongadze, who went missing in last September and a decapitated body, believed to be his, was found in November.
Opposition parties are pressing for Kuchma's resignation over the tapes recorded by Melnichenko and published by the Socialist Party leader, Olexander Moroz. The tapes purported to show that Kuchma ordered his security chiefs to arrange the kidnap of the critical journalist.
Kuchma, however, has repeatedly denied the allegation of his involvement in the Gongadze case, saying the tapes were edited to distort his words.
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