Kholodov's case did not go to trial
Yesterday, six accused of the murder of MK journalist Dmitry Kholodov were brought under escort to the assembly hall of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center for a preliminary hearing in the case. However, the meeting, as Kommersant predicted (see issue of October 11), failed due to the failure of the lawyer of one of the defendants, Vladimir Levin, to appear.

Judge of the Moscow District Military Court Vladimir Serdyukov scheduled a preliminary hearing of the case five days before the anniversary of the murder of Dmitry Kholodov (he died on October 17, 1994). Now, in articles and reports dedicated to the tragic date, no one will probably blame Mr. Serdyukov for delaying the study of the case for eight months. Meanwhile, the judge knew that the hearing would most likely not take place on the day he had appointed, since Vladimir Levin, the only lawyer for special forces paratrooper Vladimir Morozov (the other defendants have several of them), was on vacation outside the country.
Mr. Levin did not arrive in the courtroom yesterday (he could not get a return ticket from London), so the judge did not even declare the hearing open. The parents of Dmitry Kholodov, who came to the hearing, as well as the victim, journalist Ekaterina Deeva (she was wounded in the explosion at the MK editorial office), were informed that the preliminary hearing was postponed to October 23.
The new date for the trial appears to have been chosen taking into account the opinion of state prosecutors from the Prosecutor General's Office. The defendants and defense attorneys were ready to begin the trial on October 16, when lawyer Levin returned. But the prosecutor’s office expects that next week the Presnensky District Court will sentence lawyer Larisa Mova for “divulging investigative secrets” while defending former paratrooper Konstantin Barkovsky, one of those accused of murdering journalist Kholodov. And then state prosecutors will have a better chance of ensuring that lawyer Move, whom the prosecutor’s office dismissed during the investigation, does not participate in the trial. Although the lawyer is on the side of the Constitutional Court, which recognized that attempts to interrogate lawyers on the cases of their clients and then remove them as interrogated witnesses are illegal.
The preliminary hearing promises the first serious showdown between three state prosecutors and 12 defense attorneys. The latter, under any pretext, seek the release of the defendants from custody. In particular, the lawyers intend to convince the court that they and their clients were not allowed to fully familiarize themselves with the case, and therefore it must be returned to the Prosecutor General’s Office. For their part, prosecutors are going to present evidence that the accused had enough time to get acquainted, and some of them deliberately delayed this procedure.
At the preliminary hearing, the judge will have to decide whether to allow the so-called public prosecutor elected by the MK team, journalist Olga Boguslavskaya, to participate in the trial. The petition from the editorial board of MK was submitted to the judge in advance, but Ms. Boguslavskaya was not allowed into the courtroom yesterday. It is possible that her participation will be opposed both by the prosecutor's office (whose work she will critically evaluate after studying this case) and by the defendants, who for some reason consider the newspaper to be the culprit of their misadventures.
Kommersant will continue to monitor the process.

EKATERINA Kommersant-ZAPODINSKAYA

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 192 dated 10/13/2000, p. 3

Authors:

Ekaterina Zapodinskaya