The court released the president of Diamond

The panel of the Volgograd Regional Court overturned the decision of the Central District Court of Volgograd on the arrest of the head of the regional branch of the A Just Russia party and the president of the Diamant Group of Companies, Oleg Mikheev. The judges took into account all the arguments of the defense, which referred to “the serious health condition of the detainee, his participation in the election race and the status of a “simple witness” in a criminal case,” and the prosecutor’s office, which stated that there were procedural violations during the detention of Mr. Mikheev. The court did not take into account the statement of representatives of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate that, upon release, Oleg Mikheev could hide abroad and influence the course of the investigation. The case was sent to the court of first instance for retrial. The police promise that “new criminal episodes will soon appear in Mikheev’s case” and “the number of defendants will increase.” Yesterday, the panel of the Volgograd Regional Court, by its decision, released from custody the president of the Diamant Group of Companies, the leader of the Volgograd Right Russia, Oleg Mikheev. On September 28, he was detained as a witness in the case of tax evasion by the Bronco-M company, affiliated with Diamant. Investigators suspect that the company hid 10 million rubles from taxes. On October 5, in the same case, Mr. Mikheev was charged with aiding and abetting tax evasion. On the eve of the arrest, the president of Diamond held a press conference at which he called what was happening “political terror.” In his opinion, the actions of the security forces were initiated by the political opponents of A Just Russia - the regional branch of United Russia. The spravoross accused the top management of the regional police department of carrying out the “order.”
Let us recall that on Tuesday, at the first meeting of the board in the cassation appeal, the defense asked to cancel the decision of the Central District Court of Volgograd dated September 28 on the detention of Mr. Mikheev, citing the “serious health condition of the detainee, his participation in the election race and the status of a “simple witness” in a criminal case " The lawyers also insisted that the investigation failed to prove the involvement of the president of the Diamant Group of Companies in the activities of the Bronco-M company and denied the very fact that he was charged. “The investigators read out the indictment without lawyers, when Mikheev was in a pre-stroke state, and left without any signatures certifying this fact,” said defense lawyer Vladimir Prokofiev. The defense cassation was unexpectedly supported by the regional prosecutor's office. If earlier its representative in court compared the leader of the Spravorossov with Bin Laden and insisted on his arrest, now the prosecutor’s office announced “numerous violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure during the detention of Oleg Mikheev” and demanded his release. Thus, the Main Investigation Department (GID) of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate for the Volgograd Region turned out to be the only prosecutor. The GSU insisted on taking the Diamond president into custody, fearing that he might hide abroad and “influence witnesses.” As evidence, the investigators presented transcripts of telephone conversations, which, according to the State Investigative Directorate, contained direct instructions from Oleg Mikheev to his Diamant employees to obstruct the investigation.
Yesterday, the defense called these transcripts “falsification” and, together with the prosecutor’s office, provided the board with new documents. The court attached to the case a copy of the certificate of a candidate for State Duma deputy, issued to Oleg Mikheev by the Central Election Commission the day before, and the demand of the prosecutor’s office “to eliminate violations of the law committed during the detention of Mikheev.” In response to this, the head of the investigative unit of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs, Sergei Romanyuk, asked the judges to postpone the meeting, since “the case was recently accepted for investigation by the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs” and “the issue of the preventive measure must be resolved after the arrival of a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office.” However, the judges rejected this petition, considering that the presence of the regional prosecutor's office, which supported the prosecution at the time the contested decision was made, was quite sufficient.
After an hour's break, the board announced the satisfaction of the cassation appeal. The court accepted all the defense's arguments, canceled the arrest order and returned the issue of choosing a preventive measure for a new trial to the Central District Court of Volgograd with a different composition of judges.
“From the very beginning it was clear that the charges against Oleg Leonidovich (Mikheev - Kommersant) were far-fetched, and there were no grounds to keep him in custody. We hope that the court’s order will be executed within the required 24 hours and he will be released on Thursday,” commented the head of the staff of the regional branch of A Just Russia in the Volgograd region, Oleg Pakholkov, on the court’s decision.
Yesterday, at a special press conference, the head of the Main Directorate of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate, Major General Sergei Borodulin, completely denied any “political component” in this case. “I do not rule out that new criminal episodes will soon appear and the number of defendants in Mikheev’s case will increase, but this issue will be decided by the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” said the major general.
Alexander Vasiliev

Kommersant (Volgograd) No. 191 from 10/18/2007

The prosecutor's office outplayed the police