The court gave a second sanction to bring Nikolai Utkin to criminal responsibility

Yesterday, the Samara Regional Court for the second time agreed to prosecute the mayor of Togliatti, Nikolai Utkin, who is under arrest in the so-called “land case”. The prosecutor's office believes that Mr. Utkin exceeded his official authority by disposing of land plots of the Rossiya agricultural enterprises and them. Stepan Razin. In February of this year, the court already deprived Mr. Utkin of parliamentary immunity, but the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation overturned this decision. The official's lawyers again intend to appeal to the Supreme Court. Yesterday, a trio of judges of the Samara Regional Court, chaired by Mikhail Medvedev, found signs of a crime under Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Excess of official powers”) in the actions of the mayor of Togliatti, Nikolai Utkin, who is under arrest. As stated in the submission of the prosecutor's office sent to the court, the official is suspected of illegal disposal in 1992-2003 of land plots of agricultural enterprises "Russia" and them. Stepan Razin, as a result of which the latter suffered damage of 151 million rubles (houses, shopping complexes, and parking lots were built on state farm lands. - Kommersant).
Let us remind you that since December 2006, investigators of the department for investigating particularly important cases of the regional prosecutor's office have not been able to bring charges against regional Duma deputy Nikolai Utkin - to do this, the prosecutor's office must obtain court approval. On February 2 of this year, the court already deprived Mr. Utkin of parliamentary immunity, but the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on April 17 overturned this decision, since due to illness the mayor could not attend the meeting.
Yesterday, Nikolai Utkin was brought to court in a paddy wagon from a pre-trial detention center, where the mayor has been detained since May 1 on another case - about extorting 150 million rubles from the Togliatti director of a construction company. Nikolai Utkin was taken into the courtroom through an emergency exit, and the bailiffs did not allow journalists into the courtroom, citing the fact that at the last hearing the reporters showed disrespect for the court. “The judges came in, and you were standing behind them, interviewing Utkin. This is no good!” one of the bailiffs was indignant.
The decision-making procedure itself took no more than 20 minutes. After the judges left the courtroom, Deputy Samara Regional Prosecutor Alexander Galuzin announced that the court had authorized the prosecution of Nikolai Utkin. “The abuse of official power lies in the fact that land was taken away from peasant owners and leased or sold. Although, according to the law, the land had to be alienated through redemption (for example, until 1999, AvtoVAZ bought plots from farmers - Kommersant), but for some reason Utkin ignored this,” Mr. Galuzin explained to Kommersant, specifying that “58 the plots have been distributed and someone has already received ownership rights.”
The department for investigating particularly important cases of the regional prosecutor's office told Kommersant that they intend to petition for the temporary removal of Mr. Utkin from the post of mayor of Tolyatti and charge him as soon as the decision of the regional court comes into legal force. “We will apparently wait for the Supreme Court’s decision on this matter - it will take at least a month,” explained Kommersant’s interlocutor, clarifying that, unlike the previous situation, “Utkin is now under arrest and will not escape the investigation.” At the same time, Kommersant's interlocutor did not rule out that two criminal cases - a land case and a bribery case - will be combined into one proceeding.
Nikolai Utkin's lawyer Svetlana Mozharova told Kommersant that next week she will appeal the decision of the regional court to the Supreme Court. “We believe that the criminal case was initiated illegally - Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for the presence of a special subject, and the case was initiated against an indefinite number of persons. The Supreme Court's ruling stated that a “land case” is a civil law relationship that is not covered by a crime at all. But the regional court, on the contrary, considered that Utkin’s actions contained elements of a crime,” Ms. Mozharova said. In addition, according to her, the defense will seek a change in the preventive measure for Nikolai Utkin.
Pavel Sedakov
How Nikolai Utkin was persecuted Criminal case No. 200434694, better known as the “land case,” was initiated on October 23, 2004. According to the investigation, officials of the Tolyatti mayor's office illegally transferred 3.2 hectares of farmland to the Rossiya agricultural joint stock company for development, which caused damage to the agricultural enterprise in the amount of more than 151 million rubles. Currently, all the new residential areas of the Avtozavodsky district of the city and the third stage of the industrial zone of AvtoVAZ OJSC are located on these lands. The proposal to bring the mayor of Tolyatti, deputy of the Samara Gubduma Nikolai Utkin to criminal liability under Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Excess of official powers” the prosecutor’s office sent to the court on December 11 last year. The meetings at which it was supposed to be considered were postponed several times due to the illness of the mayor. On December 21, the official was hospitalized with suspected coronary heart disease and underwent surgery. Despite Mr. Utkin’s absence, on February 2 the regional court lifted his parliamentary immunity. However, they were unable to bring charges against the official - on April 17, the Supreme Court panel overturned the decision of the Samara regional court. At that time, two other defendants in the “land case” - the head of the land resources department Natalya Nemykh and her former deputy Nikolai Chizhov - had already been charged with abuse of power. Nevertheless, Nikolai Utkin was nevertheless arrested, albeit in a different case - a corruption case. On May 1, the mayor of Togliatti, head of the land resources department Natalya Nemykh and her common-law husband, entrepreneur Alexander Sidorov, were detained by officers of the FSB and the prosecutor's office of the Samara region on suspicion of extorting a bribe in the amount of 150 million rubles from the director of the construction company Stroy-Finance LLC, Igor Buzyukov. On May 3, the Samara District Court authorized the arrest of all three defendants in the criminal case, and they are currently being held in a pre-trial detention center.

Kommersant (Samara) No. 95 from 02.06.2007

The mayor was included in the new case