In St. Petersburg, the jury began retrials in the case of the murder of a Congolese student

On February 13, 2006, in the City Court of St. Petersburg, a jury began hearing on the merits of the case on the charges of four young St. Petersburg residents - Andrei Gerasimov, Yuri Gromov, Viktor Orlov and Andrei Olenev - in the murder of a student from the Congo, Roland Franz Epassac.

Two substitutions were made before the start of the jury hearing. One of the jurors was replaced at the request of the prosecutor's office, as it turned out that she had previously been prosecuted. Another juror fell ill.

The prosecution presented its position in an attempt to convince the jury that the defendants were guilty of the September 2005 murder of Epassac. Then the court interrogated a witness - a fellow countryman of the deceased Congolese, who spoke about the circumstances of the murder. After that, the court read out the testimony of Epassac's second friend, also a student from the Congo, and his girlfriend.

On June 5, 2007, a witness, a neighbor of one of the accused, was questioned in court. She gave evidence different from those she gave at the preliminary investigation and the first trial in this case. She said that she saw Gromov and Olenev, who, perhaps, "were washing something in the bathroom . " The witness had previously stated that she did not remember where she had been on 9 September 2005 or whether she had seen her neighbor Gromov that day. The petition of the defense to read out the testimony that the witness gave earlier was rejected by the court.

Defense representative Andrei Antonov, a member of the international bar association, said that the next hearing in the case of the murder of Congolese student Roland Epossac, to be held on June 7, 2007, would be held behind closed doors.

Sources

• Jurors begin rehearings in the case of the murder of a Congolese student (St. Petersburg) // IA REGNUM. 2007. February 13.
• Congolese student hearing closed // Fontanka.ru. 2007. June 5.