Pukach sentenced to life imprisonment for murder of journalist Gongadze

Pukach said that he personally received the order from the then Interior Minister, Yuriy Kravchenko, to hold surveillance over Gongadze and to kill him. An attempt to prosecute Mr Kuchma for ordering the killing collapsed in December 2011 when a judge ruled that secret audio recordings which apparently incriminated him could not be used as evidence, as they had been obtained through "illegal means". Kuchma himself has always denied involvement in the journalist's murder. A few months before his death, Georgy Gongadze founded the news website Ukrainskaya Pravda, which was sharply critical of the Kuchma presidency.

While serving as head of the Ukrainian interior ministry's external surveillance service, Pukach tracked Gongadze, the court found.

Pukach testified that he had accidentally strangled the journalist with a belt while interrogating him about possible links to foreign states in September 2000.

He further admitted severing Gongadze's head from his body, which was found in woodland in the Kiev area later that year. Part of the skull was found in 2009.

Arrested in 2009, Pukach confessed to the killing at an early stage, saying he had used an axe to behead the journalist.

A lawyer for Pukach said the defence would appeal against the court's judgment, the Russian news agency Interfax reports.

Three officials from Pukach's department are already serving jail terms for their part in the murder.

Kravchenko was found dead with gunshot wounds in 2005, in what was officially described as a suicide, just as he was about to be questioned.

Questions have been asked about how he managed to shoot himself twice in the head.