First Ukrainian President (1991-1994) Leonid Kravchuk has stated that the fact that Second Ukrainian President (1994-2005) Leonid Kuchma and former Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn were not interrogated on the criminal case against the former chief of the Interior Ministry's external surveillance department, Oleksiy Pukach, on the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze proves the existence of selective justice in Ukraine.

"Personally I wish everyone was interrogated by court. And I think Lytvyn and Kuchma could come to court," he said on Channel 5 on February 2.

Kravchuk added that the presiding judge in the case should have been replaced, as he refused to summon them to interrogation. When the presenter of the television program noted that the judge still was not replaced, Kravchuk said: "This is bad. They are accusing us of having selective justice, and that's another example of it."

Kravchuk stressed that only judicial reform and the president's will could eliminate selective justice in Ukraine.

On January 29, 2013, Kyiv's Pechersky District Court found Pukach guilty of killing Gongadze and sentenced him to life in prison. The court also stripped Pukach of his lieutenant general rank and obliged him to pay UAH 500,000 to Gongadze's widow, Myroslava Gongadze, and UAH 100,000 to journalist Oleksiy Podolsky, who is another injured party in the case.

Judge Andriy Melnyk asked Pukach after pronouncing the sentence whether he understands it, and Pukach replied: "I will understand the sentence when Kuchma and Lytvyn are also put in jail together with me."

On March 21, 2011, a criminal case was opened against Kuchma. He was accused of abuse of office and power that resulted into the murder of journalist Gongadze (Part 3 of Article 166 of the Criminal Code of 1960).

On December 13, 2011, Kyiv's Pechersky District Court declared illegal the opening of the criminal case against Kuchma and cancelled the PGO's relevant instruction.

Kyiv Court of Appeals and High Specialized Court on Civil and Criminal Cases upheld the decision to close the criminal case against Kuchma.

Kuchma categorically denied allegations of his involvement in the murder of the journalist.

In December 2012, First Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Renat Kuzmin told journalists that the investigation to discover people that ordered the murder of Gongadze was added to the single register of pre-trial investigations and was investigated under new procedures foreseen by the new Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine that took effect on November 21, 2012.

Journalist Gongadze, the founder of the Internet publication Ukrainska Pravda, disappeared in Kyiv on September 16, 2000. A beheaded body was found in a forest outside Kyiv in November 2000, and experts concluded preliminarily that it could have been Gongadze's. Remains of a skull were found in Kyiv region in 2009, and the Prosecutor General's Office concluded that they were Gongadze's. The body, however, has still not been buried, as the journalist's mother, Lesia Gongadze, is refusing to recognize the remains as her son's.