On Tuesday, the Narofominsk Garrison Military Court sentenced former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko to 3.5 years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of 1 year.

Alexander Litvinenko was tried in absentia, since he now lives in London and did not want to come to Moscow even for such pleasure as meeting with the garrison Themis.

The Chief Military Prosecutor's Office argued at the trial that in 1997, during operational search activities, Litvinenko, exceeding his official authority, applied physical force to suspects (Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, Litvinenko committed these outrages while investigating cases in Moscow, Kostroma and Podolsk. He was also charged with illegal acquisition and storage of explosives (Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). For this, the state prosecutor asked the court to sentence the defendant in absentia to five and a half years of imprisonment to be served in a general regime colony. In turn, Litvinenko’s lawyer, Mikhail Marov, proposed acquitting his client “for lack of proof of guilt.”

Let us recall that Alexander Litvinenko, an employee of the FSB department for developing and suppressing the activities of criminal associations (URPO), several years ago gained all-Russian and even international fame with his statement that his superiors instructed him and several colleagues in the department to kill Boris Berezovsky. The Main Military Prosecutor's Office even opened a criminal case on this matter, but in December 1999 dropped it for lack of corpus delicti.

But then the prosecutors remembered that they had complaints about the illegal methods of investigation by Litvinenko himself. And they opened a corresponding case, which came to trial in the military court of the Moscow garrison. This court found Litvinenko and another FSB officer, Alexander Gusak, who was involved in the case with him, innocent. The main military prosecutor's office, however, showed enviable persistence: the accomplices were again taken into custody after the acquittal was issued right in the courtroom. Already on suspicion of committing other crimes.

Soon, at the request of his lawyers, Alexander Litvinenko was released from prison on his own recognizance. That, however, did not stop him from going on vacation with his family to Turkey, from where, also with his family, he moved to England. This detective story ended with political asylum, which was granted to him by the authorities of Foggy Albion.

So, due to the absence of the defendant in Russia, the current trial was in absentia. It lasted almost a month, from May 28. It was clear that the verdict would come in June, as new legislation banning trials in absentia came into force on July 1. We made it. Alexander Litvinenko received a suspended sentence of 3.5 years with a one-year probationary period. He is deprived of the right to hold public positions related to the exercise of power for 3 years after serving his sentence. In addition, as compensation for moral damage, Litvinenko must pay a total of 80 thousand rubles to five victims, and a little more than 1 thousand rubles to the administration of the hospital of the Kostroma Regional Internal Affairs Directorate. He was also charged legal costs in the amount of 8 thousand rubles. When passing the sentence, the court took into account that Litvinenko had no previous convictions, participated in the counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus and has dependent minor children.

The prosecutor's office, naturally, is dissatisfied with this verdict. Lawyer Mikhail Marov, who intends to file a cassation appeal with the military court of the Moscow Military District, is also dissatisfied. According to him, material evidence of Litvinenko’s innocence was destroyed; only photocopies of them appeared during the investigation. The lawyer questioned the reliability of the video recording of the interrogation of one of the victims, Babkin, who, according to the investigation, was severely beaten by Litvinenko. “In the video there is not a single bruise on Babkin, and he looks healthy,” he told reporters.

Litvinenko himself does not want to calm down, although the hero of the trial does not intend to come to Russia, and for him personally it does not matter whether he is given a suspended sentence or should be sent to a colony. Nevertheless, the former FSB officer, speaking on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, said that he would complain to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where he would certainly win the case.

Lenta.Ru: Convict Alexander Litvinenko makes new revelations

TRIALED IN ABSENTIA, CONDITIONALLY SENTENCED