Not a thief

The court of Komsomolsk-on-Amur began considering a civil claim to protect the honor and dignity of local pretrial detention center prisoner Eduard Sakhnov (Sakhno) against Kommersant and the city’s deputy prosecutor Valery Kozlov. The plaintiff, who has been charged with leading the criminal organization Obshchak, through his lawyer Sergei Babaev, is seeking a refutation of the information published by Kommersant. In particular, he objects to being called a “thief in law” and the leader of the said organized crime group. Kommersant presented evidence that law enforcement agencies and residents of the region consider Sakhno to be such. The court began assessing the evidence for admissibility. At the first hearing in the Central District Court of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the case “Sakhnov v. Kommersant,” the plaintiff’s representative, lawyer Sergei Babaev, confirmed the client’s claims. Eduard Sakhnov insists on refuting the information published by Kommersant on February 11, 2006. In particular, he protests against being called a “thief in law” and “the leader of the Far Eastern criminal community Obshchak.” “The information may negatively affect my public opinion. Please take into account that I am the commercial director of Lev LLC, the founder of another enterprise, I play for the Mostovik football club, and I have a large circle of acquaintances,” the plaintiff emphasized in his application to the court.
Eduard Sakhnov was not personally present at the meeting, since he is currently under arrest in a pre-trial detention center and is familiarizing himself with the materials of the criminal case brought against him. Let us recall that on May 12–13, 2005, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, after a large-scale police action, Eduard Sakhnov (Sakhno), Oleg Semakin (Eva) and the previously unconvicted 25-year-old Oleg Shokhirev (Leshy, Pensioner, Malek) were taken into custody. who (hereinafter information about these persons is according to the investigation) have the status of “thieves in law.” The “authority” Konstantin Koshelev was also arrested. During the searches, ammunition and documents were discovered, some of which were related to the “accounting of the OPS”, and others determined the hierarchy of the “Obshchak”. By December 2005, there were 11 people arrested in this case. All of them were charged under Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Participation in an organized criminal community”).
According to law enforcement agencies, the Obshchak gang in its current form began to be formed in 1985–1987 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur by thief in law Evgeny Vasin (Jem). After his death on October 23, 2001, four “thieves in law” named by him remained in the Khabarovsk pre-trial detention center in the Far East - Sakhno, Eva, Leshy and Lepekha (he was found hanged in November 2003). Eduard Sakhnov (Sakhno) was elected as the new head of the OPS, inheriting an organization whose territory of influence extended from Yakutia in the west to Primorye in the south and the Magadan region in the north.
As Sakhnov’s representative Sergei Babaev stated at the court hearing, “until the court makes a decision on charges of leading an organized criminal group, no one has the right to call my client the leader of Obshchak and a thief in law.” In response, Kommersant brought to the attention of the court that the plaintiff was called that way many times, and provided links to a speech in Khabarovsk by Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev in January 2005, an interview with Deputy Prosecutor of Komsomolsk-on-Amur Valery Kozlov, posted on a local website, publication of the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Far Eastern Federal District, etc. Similar characteristics were given to Eduard Sakhnov in the charge brought against him, which Kommersant filed a motion to request from the Khabarovsk Territory prosecutor's office at the trial. Judge Vladimir Zeleznev considered that it would be sufficient to include the materials submitted by the prosecutor's office to the court when applying for permission to arrest Sakhnov.
In addition to the clear position of law enforcement agencies regarding Sakhnov’s criminal status, Kommersant presented evidence that even the least interested part of the population of the Far East - young people - is aware of the nature of his activities. Thus, on the forum of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur website komcity.ru there was a lively discussion of a girl from Sakhalin declaring her love for Eduard Sakhnov. “Would I love a person without knowing absolutely anything about him?.. And Sakhno is really the king of the entire criminal world of the Far East. He is an authority for everyone,” the girl writes, complaining that she cannot meet him. The number of responses and advice to her numbered in the hundreds.
Lawyer Sergei Babaev said that since the controversial publication did not contain references to these sources, they cannot be taken into account. According to him, the words of young people on the forum are also not suitable, since they all hide their names under “nicknames” and the author of the article does not know any of them personally. The court decided to examine the evidence presented by Kommersant for admissibility, during which it correlated the presented links with the actual content of the Internet pages. After this, Kommersant’s request to include them in the case materials will be considered.
It is noteworthy that for five years (from the moment of the alleged “coronation”) Eduard Sakhnov never tried to challenge similar information in countless publications about his person. Kommersant’s co-defendant in this case, Deputy Prosecutor of Komsomolsk-on-Amur Valery Kozlov, asked Mr. Babaev whether his client really renounces the title of “thief in law” (the history of the criminal world knows no such precedents. - Kommersant). The lawyer replied that this did not matter in this trial.
The next meeting is scheduled for June 22.
ERNEST FILIPOVSKY

Kommersant (Khabarovsk) No. 108 dated 06/17/2006

Eduard Sakhnov demanded protection of honor