Former foreign minister Kozhara named murder suspect by police

Leonid Kozhara, a former foreign minister of Ukraine,
was arrested on Mar. 25 and issued a notice of suspicion for allegedly
murdering Serhiy Starytskiy, a longtime television network executive, as
reported that day by Anton Herashchenko, a deputy minister of internal affairs,
on his Facebook page. Bail will be set by a court within 72 hours of the
arrest, he said. Sarytskiy was shot and killed the night of Feb. 21 at
Kozhara’s suburban Kyiv house. When police arrived, they found Starytskiy lying
dead with a Jericho pistol in his hand belonging to Kozhara. Police reported
Kozhara was drunk at the crime scene and spoke exclusively in English, rather
than Russian or Ukrainian, as reported by journalist Yegor Checherynda on his
Facebook page. At the scene, both Kozhara and his wife told police Starytskiy
had shot himself, Herashchenko wrote, adding they continue to maintain this
alibi.

The 57-year-old Kozhara had served as Ukraine’s
foreign minister between December 2012 and February 2014 under the
Russian-oriented Yanukovych administration that was overthrown during the
Euromaidan protests. He had served as an MP with the defunct Party of Regions.

The 56-year-old Starytskiy was among the key directors
of advertising for the 2004 presidential campaign of Viktor Yanukovych, which
involved several firms that he created and led, the detector.media news site
said. Starytskiy then had served as the deputy board chairman of the Inter
television network in 2005-2007, controlled at the time by Valeriy
Khoroshkovskiy and natural gas trader Dmytro Firtash, who is widely
acknowledged to have financed the defunct Party of Regions. Afterwards,
Starytskiy created and was involved in numerous advertising companies,
including the Atlantic Group holding, the detector.media news site said.

Zenon Zawada: Here is the latest criminal case, involving a high-profile persona,
that should otherwise be a routine matter for Ukraine’s law enforcement
authorities and judiciary. Nonetheless, these authorities have a knack for
“fumbling” even the most open-and-shut cases. So for the investment community,
it will be most relevant to see whether Kozhara’s criminal case reaches trial,
how this trial is conducted and whether it reaches a verdict. Needless to say,
the Zelensky administration’s judicial record will be further discredited if
there are flaws in what is otherwise a basic, rudimentary criminal justice
process in a rule of law society.