"God" protests

The trial of Grigory Grabov has begun

The Tagansky Court of Moscow yesterday began consideration of the merits of the criminal case against the “living triune god,” “magician and sorcerer,” “saint,” “messiah,” and “healer” Grigory Grabovoi , accused by the prosecutor’s office of fraud. It was expected that the indictment would be read out in court that day, after which the parties would begin studying evidence and questioning witnesses, but the usual court hearing did not happen yesterday. “The Magician and the Sorcerer” spent the whole day filing petitions, very competently from a legal point of view, demanding that certain evidence be excluded from the criminal case or phrases and even individual words from the indictment. At the same time, the defendant nobly chose not to use his “magic charms.” In total, he managed to make more than 40 “statements.” The court refused to satisfy all of Grabovoi’s requests. Then Mr. Grabovoi, under the pretext of solving the problems of “national security of the country,” asked to be released from custody. The “scientist” stated that he “must prevent an explosion at the Balakovo nuclear power plant, the reactor of which has a serious malfunction.” However, the court did not listen to him here either.

Grigory Grabovoi, who officially holds the position of head of the foundation named after himself, was arrested in April last year at the Cosmos Hotel during a lecture at which he spoke about his teachings. The accused claimed that he was able to resurrect dead people, treat incurable diseases, predict man-made disasters and perform many other miracles. He also developed a system of protection against various misfortunes by “concentrating on number series,” according to which a certain set of numbers can protect a person from a variety of misfortunes—even from a sniper bullet, even from a virus, even from “illegal actions of the prosecutor’s office.” However, as the prosecutor’s office found out, Mr. Grabovoi did not use these abilities disinterestedly.

According to the investigation, the “healer” organized a network of branches in 57 regions of the country, where the “wizard’s” students helped everyone. A collective seminar, which brought together up to 500 people, cost each participant 2 thousand rubles; for individual classes on “enlightenment” it was necessary to pay about 40 thousand rubles. Students transferred money for lectures and seminars to the Grigory Grabovoi Foundation as voluntary donations. For the time being, law enforcement agencies did not pay attention to the “sorcerer” until he decided to resurrect the children who died in the Beslan school. As a result, Grabovoy was charged with 11 counts of fraud, and the damage from his actions was estimated at 1 million rubles. Moreover, among other things, he is charged with receiving money for the “resurrection of the dead,” who, as Grabovoi claimed, “came to life,” but in another part of the world and in a different guise. Despite the fact that the case was brought to court in the summer of 2006, they were able to begin its consideration only now, since during the preliminary hearings held in September last year, the court returned Grabovoi’s case to the prosecutor’s office of the Central Administrative District, having discovered a number of shortcomings in it .

By the beginning of the hearing, about a hundred admirers of the “messiah” had come to the Tagansky court building. They occupied the entire space in front of the courthouse and occupied all three floors inside. The “Grabovists” were noisy - they demanded the release of the “teacher” from arrest, called what was happening a “farce” and “intrigues of the special services,” since, according to them, Mr. Grabovoi was detained immediately after he decided to run for office. the post of president of the country. At the same time, those gathered signed all sorts of appeals - to the chairman of the Moscow City Court, to the president of the country and even to the media “with the requirement to positively describe the course of the process and treat Mr. Grabovoi with respect and study his scientific works.” When asked to give the manifesto for more detailed review, the “grabovists” refused, explaining this in a rather rude manner, the essence of which was that the journalists would get everything wrong anyway. People who introduced themselves as scientists also came to support the defendant. They pestered those present with stories about their amazing discoveries, forcibly handed over Talmuds describing their inventions, while not forgetting to talk with foam at the mouth “about the enormous role” of Mr. Grabovoi in modern science.

The apotheosis of this action was the appearance in court of a man in church attire. The stranger introduced himself as the abbot of the Orthodox Church, Father Arseny. At first, he stated that he came to the trial to “listen to Grigory, understand his position and draw conclusions.” However, already during the hearing, he suddenly expressed a desire to speak at the trial as a witness for Mr. Grabovoi’s defense. This surprised the trial participants all the more because the defendant at one time declared himself the “second coming” of Jesus Christ.

It turned out to be difficult to get into the small meeting room, so fans of Grabovoi’s “talent” resorted to a trick and got inside under the guise of journalists. Just before the start of the meeting, a copy of a telegram on behalf of “the head of the Russian cosmonaut corps, Pavel Vinogradov,” began to be distributed among those present. The paper said that “the cosmonaut flew to Magadan, but really wants to become a witness in this case, since he worked with Grabov for eight years and can confirm the accuracy of forecasts and detection of problems on spacecraft.”

During the meeting itself, Grabovoy made more than 40 motions - to exclude evidence on the basis that, in the scientist’s opinion, it was false, to exclude phrases from the indictment, and even to check the qualifications of the experts who examined his books. According to Grabovoi, he even sent a letter to the FSB demanding that they conduct a background check on the specialists, since “the Institute of Latin America and the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where they work, are involved in drug trafficking and terrorist attacks in Moscow.” Despite the judge's refusal to satisfy Mr. Grabovoi's requests, he did not wilt. Today he promised to announce a number of more statements, and his lawyers intend to petition for the recusal of judges and state prosecutors because they are biased against the accused.

Alexey IVLEV