Ukraine detains ex-presidential bodyguard turned whistleblower

KIEV, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Ukraine's SBU state security
service on Wednesday detained an ex-presidential bodyguard
famous for leaking wiretapped recordings that implicated former
President Leonid Kuchma and other top officials in murder.

SBU operatives detained Mykola Melnychenko at an airport in
Kiev, the service said in a statement, saying that the former
bodyguard, who had been staying in the United States, was wanted
for fraud, disclosure of state secrets and abuse of office.

It did not say what had brought him back to Ukraine days
ahead of a parliamentary election on Sunday.

Melnychenko leaked what he said at the time were recordings
made in Kuchma's office which, if authentic, suggested that
Kuchma and others had been involved in crimes such as the murder
of investigative reporter Georgiy Gongadze in 2000.

Kuchma, 74, has strongly denied any role in the killing of
the 31-year-old campaigning editor, whose headless body was
found in a forest soon after his abduction. The case became
post-Soviet Ukraine's most notorious and was a turning point in
Kuchma's 10-year rule.