Translated material
The main evidence is the bullet
Primorye SOBR soldier accused of killing commander
The commander of the Primorye SOBR, police major Konstantin Ilyushchenko, died on October 31 last year near the village of Aksa, Khasavyurt district of Dagestan. A year after the tragedy, his subordinate was in the dock on charges of premeditated murder of his boss. According to investigators from the regional prosecutor's office, the crime was committed by Roman Zverev, a demolition officer in the special rapid response squad of the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Primorsky Territory Internal Affairs Directorate. The hearing of this criminal case began on November 2 in the Sovetsky District Court of Vladivostok.According to the very first version, Konstantin Ilyushchenko blew himself up due to his own mistake when setting up a tripwire near the checkpoint where a detachment of the Primorye SOBR was on duty. At first glance, the circumstances of the explosion were obvious. The officer was buried without an appropriate medical examination, and the initiation of a criminal case was refused. However, some soldiers had suspicions that the commander did not die by accident. Some of them shared their thoughts with the investigative authorities.
In mid-January 2000, half a month after the detachment returned from Chechnya, the prosecutor's office nevertheless opened a criminal case and began to develop the version of premeditated murder as the main one. After careful development by the Department of Internal Security of the Primorye Internal Affairs Directorate, four SOBR officers were immediately included in the list of suspects. All of them were taken into custody, but a month later only Roman Zverev remained in the pre-trial detention center. He has been on combat missions four times and has two Orders of Courage.
The main evidence of the prosecution was the bullet found after exhumation in the body of Konstantin Ilyushchenko. As a result of a ballistic examination, it turned out that it was fired from Roman Zverev’s service pistol. The grenade exploded when the major was already dead. “Zverev, taking advantage of the fact that there were no other fighters nearby, and having with him a service weapon, a pistol for silent shooting PPS, shot his commander in the head,” the indictment says.
Senior investigator for especially important cases of the Primorsky Territory prosecutor's office, Sergei Filatov, who headed the investigative team, believes that the alleged killer had long been planning to take revenge on Konstantin Ilyushchenko for the insult he once inflicted. An opportune moment came on the evening of October 31, 1999, when, having returned from an operational meeting, the commander of the Primorye SOBR decided to take a smoke break at the checkpoint. Zverev approached the major and shot him in the head. Then he placed a grenade under the dead man’s head and blew it up, trying to simulate an accident.
Meanwhile, the accused categorically pleads not guilty of murder and claims that he was the victim of a slander. According to lawyers, the process will last more than a month.