KIEV, Aug. 26 – A Ukrainian journalist missing for the past two weeks is probably dead, and police officers may have been involved in the matter, Interior Minister Anatoliy Mohyliov said Thursday.

Vasyl Klymentyev, the editor of Noviy Stil newspaper, had been running investigative reports about corruption among senior police officers in Kharkiv until he disappeared on Aug. 11.

“There are enough reasons to believe that he is dead,” Mohyliov said at a press conference. “We have suspicions that members of law enforcement organs, both current and former, may be involved.”

The shocking revelation comes as Ukrainian media and opposition groups have been warning the country has been moving rapidly over the past seven months towards restrictions of the freedom of speech.

In 2000, opposition journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, who wrote about corruption among Ukraine's political elite, had been considered missing for months before his decapitated body was found outside Kyiv.

The killing sparked months of protests against then-President Leonid Kuchma, who was accused of involvement in the journalist's death.

Over the past six months a number of journalists in Ukraine have come under attack from local government officials and police officers, but the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych had appeared to be reluctant to improve the situation.

At least two major international media watchdogs have recently voiced serious concerns over significant deterioration of the freedom of speech in Ukraine since February, when Yanukovych had been elected to the presidency.

Mohyliov said the Interior Ministry shifted the investigation of Klymentyev’s disappearance to its Main Investigation Department, which investigates the most high-profile crimes, amid concerns that police will try to cover it up.

“We need all information to be transparent and available for wide range of people to make sure there are no insinuations in this case,” Mohyliov said.

Klymentyev ran a number of investigative reports abo the corruption in the local authorities in Kharkiv, creating many powerful enemies.

“During the initial investigation we have found many critical reports that he had written about the [powerful] personas in the Kharkiv region,” Mohyliov said.

Klymentyev was last seen leaving his home on Aug. 11 with an unknown man in a BMW. He has not been heard from since.

Klymentyev’s cell phone and home keys were found in a boat that had been floating empty at the Pechenizke lake in the Kharkiv region on Aug. 17, police said.

Petro Matvienko, deputy editor at Noviy Stil, said that Klymentyev had been threatened after refusing to take money to kill a story about a regional prosecutor accused of accepting bribes to close criminal cases.

Henadiy Moskal, a former deputy interior minister and a member of the opposition group People’s Self-defense, said Klymentyev’s disappearance may be connected to a battle underway over who will run the Kharkiv police.

“In reality this crime has been committed in the police environment,” Moskal said. “It was committed in the battle for the post of the chief of the Kharkiv region police department.”

Moskal said apparently there were plans to replace the current Kharkiv police chief, Martynov, with Denysiuk, and Martynov loyalists have encouraged Klymentyev to run a story about Denysiuk’s alleged corruption.

“A group of police officers, current and former, asked Klymentyev to take a picture of Denysiuk’s dacha and to begin a series of negative stories about him,” Moskal said without citing a source for information.

“They showed the journalist where the dacha is, but there is a late in front of it and it is hard to take a picture from afar,” Moskal said. “The journalist said he will take the boat later in the night and will take a picture from a closer distance.”

“After that the empty boat was found, and the cell phone in the boat,” Moskal said. “But the journalist himself cannot be found through this day.” (tl/ez)