| The new decision in the case of the death of Sergiev Posad riot police was assessed in the same way Yesterday, the Presnensky District Court of the capital handed down another verdict to two high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, accused of negligence leading to the tragic death of 22 officers of the Sergiev Posad riot police in Chechnya in March 2000. Former deputy chief of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Moscow Region, Major General Boris Fadeev, and the head of the control group (GU) of the United Group of Forces (OGV) in Chechnya, Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Levchenko, by decision of the visiting session of the Mozdok District Court, this time were sentenced to four years in a colony-settlement, but were released from punishment for amnesty. This is the third verdict in this case; the previous two - acquittal and conviction - were overturned yesterday. But even now the epic cannot be considered completed - the convicts and victims unanimously declared their disagreement with the court's decision and intend to have it overturned.
Judge of the Mozdok District Court Viktor Golovko yesterday decided to read only the operative part of the verdict on the grounds that the trial itself was conducted behind closed doors. This caused bewilderment among everyone present. “Where did some state secret come from in this case? - Fadeev’s lawyer Liliya Abakova was indignant. - The two previous verdicts were read out in full, but this time they were not, although absolutely nothing new was added to the case. It is unclear on what basis the court considered Fadeev and Levchenko’s guilt proven.”
According to the prosecution, on March 2, 2000, a detachment of the Sergiev Posad riot police that arrived in Chechnya was ambushed in the suburbs of Grozny, which their colleagues from the Sverdlovsk riot police arranged for the militants of Beslan Gantamirov. As a result of this ridiculous mistake, 22 policemen were killed and 54 were wounded in the crossfire. In 2001, the Directorate of the Prosecutor General's Office for the North Caucasus opened a criminal case and came to the conclusion that the tragedy occurred due to inconsistency in the actions of the UGA command. It was never possible to find out who exactly started the shootout, and the investigation was suspended. But a separate proceeding was taken against those persons who, by virtue of their duties, had to ensure the safety and security of the riot police column. In particular, according to the prosecution, the deputy head of the Moscow Region Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Boris Fadeev, was supposed to accompany the detachment to its location. According to an order from above, the Sergiev Posad riot police were landed in Mozdok, and the major general went with the rest of the echelon further to Gudermes, leaving the detachment unattended. At the same time, according to the investigation, Fadeev did not report the current situation to his superiors. The GU was supposed to organize security - provide the convoy with armored personnel carriers, communications, give call signs and a route sheet - for the duration of the journey from Mozdok to Chechnya. There was an instruction from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for this, which the head of the Main Directorate, Mikhail Levchenko, did not comply with, and therefore was also accused of negligence.
In March 2002, the Staropromyslovsky District Court of Grozny acquitted the officers. At the same time, the verdict noted that Levchenko could not ensure the safety of the convoy’s advance, since the police themselves did not receive a waybill at the base in Mozdok. Fadeev was accompanied by another detachment and could not simultaneously control the actions of the Sergiev Posad policemen. The Prosecutor General's Office demanded that the Supreme Court of Chechnya cancel the verdict and send the case for further investigation, which was possible under the Code of Criminal Procedure in force at that time. The protest from the prosecutor's office was satisfied, and soon the Mozdok District Court began a new trial. In February of this year, the exact opposite verdict was made - the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to four years in a penal colony. True, they were released from punishment under an amnesty. But this verdict, based on a complaint from the convicts and victims, was now overturned by the Supreme Court of North Ossetia. As Nikolai Grachev, whose son, senior lieutenant of the Pskov riot police Mikhail Grachev, died in a shootout, told Vremya Novostei, the reason for this was gross violations of the Criminal Procedure Code. The right of victims to submit petitions in court was violated, a number of witnesses were unreasonably not questioned, and the testimony of others was presented in a biased manner.
Yesterday's verdict repeated the previous one. But the logic of the court's reasoning remains a mystery. “I regard this verdict as an order and will definitely appeal it, I will fight until victory. This case was fabricated by those officials who wanted to deflect responsibility from themselves,” Mr. Fadeev decisively stated, hoping for an acquittal. His lawyer supported his client: “Fadeev was released from punishment under an amnesty, but if the evidence directly says that he had nothing to do with this execution, why should we put up with this?”
Mikhail Levchenko suggested that they were made “extreme” precisely because, unlike many, they always honestly and zealously performed their duty: “Since 1996, all documents on the Caucasus concerning the operational work of the headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been developed by me. I knew how to work and clearly knew how to do everything, that’s why they pinned everything on me. Security issues were entrusted to me after the tragedy, and then they announced that I should have dealt with this earlier. I will not take on someone else's sin. And what happened to the guys is grief, it’s pain, it’s a tragedy.”
The victims agreed that Fadeev and Levchenko were not involved in the emergency, and also intend to seek the overturning of the verdict. “We realized a long time ago that Fadeev and Levchenko are innocent. But if an order is given to punish, it will be carried out. The tragedy was covered up by this process, and we will never know who is really to blame for the death of our relatives. I am very sorry that the sentence is not based on the law. Although I no longer hoped for a different solution,” said Nikolai Grachev. The representative of the Prosecutor General's Office, who supported the prosecution in court, did not appear in public yesterday. Ekaterina BUTORINA |
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