Sit down, the trial is coming

For another three months, until November 30, six defendants in the case of the murder of Galina Starovoytova - Yuri Kolchin, Vitaly Akishin, Igor Lelyavin, Yuri Ionov, Igor Krasnov and Alexey Voronin - will be guaranteed to remain in custody. Yesterday, at the request of the state prosecution, the City Court extended their arrest for another term - the current one expires on August 31. Of course, the lawyers for most of the defendants were categorically against it, citing the fact that their clients were not going to threaten witnesses or run away from trial, and that the severity of the charges alone was not a sufficient argument for arrest. Of course, they will appeal the extension of arrest to the Supreme Court, but their previous attempt was unsuccessful - on August 23, the Supreme Court of Russia rejected the complaint of Igor Lelyavin’s lawyer, Viktor Kalmykov, against the previous extension of his detention.

However, this extension was almost in jeopardy. The demarche of lawyer Alexander Safronov (he defends Yuri Kolchin, whom the prosecution considers the organizer of the murder) almost paralyzed the trial. First, Safronov challenged Judge Valentina Kudryashova for the fourth time. As before, he accused the judge of being “interested in the outcome of the case,” citing “the accusatory bias of the court hearings and the refusal to consider the case by a jury.” After Kudryashova refused to consider the challenge at all - it did not contain any new motives, and previous challenges were rejected by the Supreme Court - Safronov said that in this case he had nothing more to do in the process, and left the room.
The further continuation of the hearings now depended solely on Yuri Kolchin - he could state that he wanted the hearings to continue only with the participation of Safronov (despite the fact that he was defended by two more lawyers - Sandalnev and Mikhailov), or agree that Safronov’s absence would not interfere with the process. After a half-hour break, everything more or less settled down. Kolchin said that he had no objection to considering the case without Safronov, and the lawyer who left the room conveyed through his colleagues that he left due to “deteriorating health - stress and increased blood sugar levels.”
Now there are no formal obstacles to continuing the process: a number of witnesses from the prosecution and then the defense still have to be questioned. It is possible that Pavel Stekhnovsky, who was detained some time ago in Belgium after his extradition to Russia, will be brought as a witness to the trial.

Alexander SAMOILOV