| New jurors and new prosecutors were presented to the defendant Pichugin Alexei Pichugin, a former Yukos security officer accused of organizing murders and assassinations, began to be tried anew. Yesterday, the indictment was read out in the Moscow City Court and the second defendant, Pichugin's alleged accomplice, Alexey Peshkun, was questioned. After recent threats of disbarment, the defendants' defense lawyers appeared at the hearing in full and immediately demanded the judge's recusal. State prosecutors, in turn, said that they intend to consider the case as soon as possible, and complained that the lawyers were deliberately delaying the process, and it was they who were to blame for the dissolution of the previous jury.
In addition to the new jurors, two new prosecutors are also participating in the trial. Now, instead of representatives of the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office, employees of the Prosecutor General's Office Kamil Kashaev and Yevgeny Naydenov, through whose efforts Igor Sutyagin was sentenced to 15 years for espionage, are speaking in court. “The prosecutors from the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office have many more cases in progress besides the Pichugin case, and they are physically unable to participate in the case, the hearings of which are constantly postponed due to the fault of the lawyers. Our goal is to consider the case as quickly as possible; we do not want the jury, tired of red tape, to run away, and we will not allow lawyers to sabotage the hearings,” said Mr. Kashaev.
The meeting began with Pichugin’s lawyers challenging Judge Natalya Olikhver. According to her defenders, she is guilty of disclosing the materials of the case, which is being heard behind closed doors. “The judge is not independent and not objective. Why on earth does she report to Egorova (chairman of the Moscow City Court - Ed. ) about what is happening in a closed trial? And then Egorova writes a complaint addressed to Yuri Chaika (Minister of Justice - Ed. ) that we are allegedly calling the judge names and sabotaging the hearings. How can the chairman of the Moscow City Court know this?” - lawyer Mikhail Zhidkov explained his position. This statement was the lawyers’ response to Ms. Egorova’s appeal to the Ministry of Justice with a demand to conduct an audit of the actions of Pichugin’s lawyers for violations of legal ethics standards. In her letter, Ms. Egorova indicated that the lawyers “behave deliberately incorrectly, show complete disregard for the judge, do not appear at the court hearing under flimsy pretexts, are deliberately rude to the judge and show clear disrespect for the judiciary.” The Moscow Department of Justice has already begun an investigation into the letter, and lawyers called it “a provocation with the aim of putting pressure on the defense.”
But judge Natalya Olikhver did not find anything illegal in her actions yesterday and did not grant the challenge to herself. Then the lawyers demanded that the hearings be held in open mode. As an argument, they cited the recently adopted PACE resolution, which, among other things, requires Russia to conduct the trial in the Pichugin case, taking into account the principle of openness of the proceedings. “Of the 7 thousand pages of the criminal case, only 60 are secret, and the judge could only close the meeting at which these materials were read,” says Mr. Zhidkov. But this defense motion was also rejected, after which prosecutors read out the indictment.
The head of the 4th department of the YUKOS security service, Alexey Pichugin, was arrested in June 2003 on charges of organizing the kidnapping and murder in November 2002 in Tambov of the spouses Sergei and Olga Gorin. Sergei Gorin, according to the prosecution, blackmailed Pichugin, threatening to report to the authorities about the criminal affairs of a YUKOS employee known to him, in particular about the attempt on the life of former MENATEP employee Olga Kostina. In 1998, a bomb was planted near her parents' apartment. In the same year, an attempt was made on the life of Sergei Kolesov, an employee of Rosprom CJSC, which was also allegedly organized by Pichugin. The prosecution believes that Pichugin, in organizing these assassinations, carried out the instructions of one of the YUKOS shareholders, Leonid Nevzlin. The latter now lives in Israel, is accused in this case and has been put on the international wanted list.
Together with Pichugin, Tambov resident Alexey Peshkun was put in the dock, who, according to the prosecution, hired performers to kill the Gorins. They became the Tambov criminal group of Igor Korovnikov. Back in 2000, Korovnikov was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and rape, but it is on his confession that the prosecution builds its version.
The judicial investigation began with the interrogation of the defendant Peshkun, who, according to Mr. Kashaev, “admitted his involvement in the crimes committed.” “One has already been tormented by his conscience, but the second is not there yet,” noted the state prosecutor, “by the second” meaning Pichugin. Peshkun’s confession was indirectly confirmed by lawyers. “Apparently, he was persuaded to do something, since his testimony differs from those he gave at the preliminary investigation. Now he blames his sins on our client,” said lawyer Zhidkov. Alexey Pichugin refused to plead guilty. Ekaterina BUTORINA |
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