GEORGY  GONGADZE

News Organization: UKRAINSKA PRAVDA

Died: 2000

Location: UKRAINE

The 31-year-old muckraking editor of an online newspaper disappeared Sept. 16. DNA tests on a body found in a shallow grave near Kiev on Nov. 2 indicated that it was that of Gongadze. The case received international headlines and erupted into a major political domestic scandal when later that month a tape was made public that seemed to put Ukraine's president, Leonid Kuchma, squarely in the middle of a discussion about eliminating the hard-charging Gongadze. Kuchma denied involvement. In March 2008, three former police officers were sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for killing the journalist but no one was named as having ordered the killing. In 2011, a criminal case against Kuchma was dropped.