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Ukraine Ex-Leader Accused in Journalist's Killing

KIEV — A top prosecutor in Ukraine says his office has collected evidence that former President Leonid Kuchma was involved in the brutal killing of an investigative journalist.

Heorhiy Gongadze was kidnapped in September 2000, and his decapitated body was found in a forest several months later. Kuchma's former guard then released secretly recorded tapes in which a voice resembling Kuchma's is heard conspiring against the journalist.

First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin told Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio Wednesday that his office has "enough evidence" to prove Kuchma's involvement in the crime.

Kuchma has already faced charges over Gongadze's killing, but a court closed the case in 2011. Kuchma has denied involvement.

Several policemen have been convicted of carrying out the murder.

(AP)

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