"Crusade

The St. Petersburg prosecutor's office became interested in the life of the city's main pre-trial detention center

The St. Petersburg prosecutor's office, it seems, has decided to seriously take on the staff of the famous St. Petersburg pre-trial detention center "Kresty". The reason for this was the murder of one of the prisoners, committed in the 48th cell of the pre-trial detention center back in October 2006. In the end, as many as three criminal cases were opened regarding the incident, the investigation of which brought to the dock not only the three prisoners who beat 30-year-old Dmitry Stepanov to death, but also the employees of the pre-trial detention center. And new information provided by witnesses does not exclude the possibility of criminal prosecution of the leaders of this penitentiary institution, famous throughout Russia.

This tragic story began with the fact that one night Dmitry Stepanov and his acquaintance, who lived with him in the same yard, got drunk. And before going home to bed, Dmitry took the mobile phone from his drinking companion. The next morning, the guy, not yet sober, told everything to his parents, and they, frightened, turned to the police. Criminal investigation operatives of the 72nd police department of the Frunzensky district, having seen the “solved” case, immediately came to Dmitry’s home, woke him up and, finding someone else’s cell phone in his pocket, took him to Kresty.

Only later did the investigator, to whom the case was handed over, realize that the two mobile phones found in Stepanov’s pockets were exactly the same, and his friend, having slept through it, guessed that Dima had drunk himself to the point of drunkenness and was no longer able to understand anything, as, indeed, himself. But, since the charges had already been filed, the victims were going to come to court to end the process of reconciling the parties. But fate decreed otherwise.

In “Kresty”, where, as you know, there are laws and orders, Dmitry was again let down by his mobile phone. At that time, you could bring anything into the detention center for little money . Both relatives and acquaintances, taking advantage of the greed of the guards, transferred prohibited items to the cells - from household and digital equipment to drugs. Out of the kindness of their hearts, Dmitry’s friends sent him two SIM cards, but they didn’t have enough money to transfer the phone itself. However, Stepanov was “lucky” - during a walk, someone suggested that he exchange a SIM card for a mobile phone, and Dmitry, to his misfortune, agreed.

And a little later, operatives from the St. Petersburg criminal investigation department from the anti-fraud department came to his cell, accusing him of engaging in “telephone” fraud. It turned out that with the help of the SIM card that he exchanged for the phone, unknown people called different people, acting according to a well-known scheme - we are from the police-traffic police-tax office, your son-husband-friend committed a crime, but by paying a certain amount, troubles can be avoided and so on.

The operatives basically realized that the guy had been framed. But they needed testimony, otherwise Stepanov would face a real prison sentence. He, understandably, did not want to go to prison, and he promised the operatives to “think about it.” Soon Dmitry called his mother and said that he no longer had the strength to sit in “Kresty” and that he would tell the police who was committing fraud over the phone. After that I dialed the number of the operatives.

It was October 18th. The next day a trial was scheduled, and Dmitry said that he would go to the criminal investigation department immediately after the trial. But he couldn't come...

On October 18, 2006, Dmitry Stepanov was unexpectedly transferred from cell 855, where he spent almost four months, to cell 48. Towards evening, as follows from the materials of the criminal cases, friends, Alexey Fedorov and Andrey Uzunov from cells 108 and 383, respectively, came to visit the eldest of this “hut,” Yegor Svetozarov, to, as they say, drink tea ( and according to witnesses, vodka). According to investigators, they were brought there by guard Mikhail Larin. Uzunov from his building, and Inspector Irina Syanova released Fedorov on bail from Larin from another building. All these actions, naturally, were an open and direct violation of the internal regime of the pre-trial detention center. But for Svetozarov, Fedorov and Uzunov, such mutual visits, as witnesses say, were quite common.

True, this evening was different from the previous ones. Usually the prisoners would go “visiting” for a couple of hours, and then the guards would take them back to their cells. But this time Larin did not come for them “at the appointed hour.” When everything calmed down in “Kresty”, the aforementioned trinity, and the people with all their strength, ordered the other three inhabitants of the 48th cell - Ivanov, Kuchinsky and Zhdanov - to turn to the walls, and they themselves began to beat Stepanov.

They beat him so much that a pathologist later counted at least 48 points of force on his head alone. Moreover, according to the examination, they beat Dmitry Stepanov with their hands, feet and heavy blunt and sharp objects. They literally turned his body into a bloody pulp. Most blows are incompatible with life. From time to time the executioners urinated on the tortured person. This lasted from 5 pm to 2 am. Corps Larin, as it turned out during the investigation, was then standing next to cell 48 and knew what was happening there, but did not bother to help the beaten man. From the materials of the criminal case it follows that he ignored what was happening behind the iron door. When the guard was told that Stepanov was bleeding, he stated that he could not help him in any way because he did not have the keys to his cell with him. How he brought prisoners into it a little earlier remained “behind the scenes.”

As a result, Stepanov lay on the stone floor of the cell for more than three hours, and the door opened only at 5 o’clock in the morning. Inspector Syanova and guard Larin quickly took the “guests” away. Svetozarov ordered other inmates to wipe the floor. After that, prohibited items strangely disappeared from the room, including an empty bottle of vodka and dumbbells. Stepanov’s blood-soaked clothes also disappeared without a trace. And at about 7.00 the doctors came.

The investigation had suspicions that Dmitry died in his cell, and then a criminal case would have been opened under Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (premeditated murder). But so far no evidence of this has been found - in the prison hospital they clearly marked the time and date of death: “1.50 October 20.” Accordingly, the case was initiated under Article 111-4 (intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, resulting in the death of the victim through negligence).

It is clear that due to the death of the main suspect (Dmitry never had time to become a witness), the investigation into the criminal case of telephone fraud from “Kresty” had to be stopped. Well, the operational and investigative bodies of the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region were faced with the “noble” task of ridding the detention center employees of suspicion. And then, during the trial, the judges never tired of being amazed at how openly and thoughtlessly the prison detectives tried to hide what was really happening in cell 48. During each interrogation, the plot changed literally, like in the famous “Tales with Three Ends” by Gianni Rodari.

At first, Krestov operatives Golev and Maslovsky took on the witnesses, forcing one of them, Viktor Zhdanov, to take the blame. The same Yegor Svetozarov was entrusted with ensuring the receipt of his confession.

Next, Zinaida Terekhova, the investigator of the operational unit of pre-trial detention center No. 1, got down to business; unlike the detectives, she immediately realized that the version of Zhdanov the killer would fail in any trial - he is a very delicate person and simply could not defeat the physically stronger Stepanov. Therefore, Ms. Terekhova, according to the investigation, decided to show at least part of the truth and forced the defendants to sign interrogation reports in which only Svetozarov appeared as a suspect. But even at the same time, the documents indicated that he did not “beat” Stepanov, but only “fought” with him, and during the brawl, Stepanov allegedly fell unsuccessfully and hit his head on the toilet. Just like in the famous joke: “...and so 48 times.”

Zinaida Terekhova’s version was also supported by Boris Shchukin, investigator of the Kalinin District Prosecutor’s Office. Based on Svetozarov’s testimony that he struck Stepanov only two times, causing him to fall both times, hitting his head on the aforementioned plumbing equipment, he forced the witnesses to sign interrogation reports with similar testimony. Although Mr. Shchukin was personally present during the examination of Stepanov’s corpse and could not help but see that the victim’s head was literally turned into a bloody mess. And in the forensic expert’s report filed with the case, it was directly stated that one of the blows damaged the stem part of Stepanov’s brain - this completely excluded any possibility for him to get up after the fall.

In general, both internal and “external” investigations tried in every possible way to hide the presence of unauthorized prisoners in cell 48 and, accordingly, to divert suspicions of complicity in the crime from the employees of the special institution. They probably would have succeeded if it weren’t for the strange phone call that came from Stepanov’s mother’s apartment after her son’s funeral. Without introducing himself, the caller softly said: “Are you Dima’s mother? We offer our condolences and want you to know that your son was killed by Kamaz.”

Coming to the pre-trial detention center for interrogations, the woman was not afraid to ask prisoners about the mysterious Kamaz, and some told her that this man was famous in Kresty and that his name was Andrei Uzunov. However, Boris Shchukin, when the woman came to him with this information, advised him not to make up fairy tales, saying that her son was not the right figure for “Kamaz himself” to pay attention to him.

And then Vera Stepanova went to the city prosecutor's office. Having received information about Kamaz and how investigator Shchukin was behaving, the city prosecutor’s office took the case over, and investigators from the department for the investigation of especially serious crimes began conducting interrogations. It was then that evidence finally appeared in the case about Uzunov and Fedorov staying in someone else’s cell, and the number of suspects grew to three. A second criminal case was opened against Larin and Syanova, and then a third against investigator Terekhova. But she, like operatives Golev and Maslovsky, has so far escaped with only a slight fright - Terekhova’s case was suspended at one time, and the detectives received only a reprimand.

However, the story did not end there. With each court hearing, and the two processes are now going on in parallel, new amazing details of what happened are revealed. For example, operative Golev, testifying in the case of Larin and Syanova, said that he transferred Dmitry Stepanov from cell 855 to cell 48 not on his own initiative, but on the orders of the senior investigator of pre-trial detention center No. 1 Neofitov. The latter accompanied his order with the words: “Deal with him there.” True, how exactly Golev was supposed to deal with Stepanov is no longer known - Neofitov recently died in an accident.

Also, operative Golev said that cell 48 is the so-called “special unit”, but he refused to explain to the court what this means. Although it has long been known from the media and books that a special or press hut is, in the working jargon of employees of the penitentiary system, a cell where prisoners are placed in order to extract the necessary testimony from them.

As for Syanova, who, while on trial, also acts as a witness in the case of Uzunov, Fedorov and Svetozarov, she amazes the audience with her testimony from the life of “Crosses.” According to her, the number of prisoners in the cells during daily checks was not determined by the presence of the defendant in his bed - the corps simply knocked on the iron doors, from behind which a voice was heard that called the number of those in the cell. Other Krestov employees said that prisoners walking from hut to hut and prohibited items in the guards' rooms were one of the ways to increase the low income from this difficult work. For example, information appeared in the media that a “guest fee” then cost 500 rubles, and a bottle of vodka transferred from outside the country cost 400.

Now the trial of the corps is nearing completion - only one witness from the victims remains to be questioned. But the case of Uzunov, Fedorov and Svetozarov may drag on. It turned out that the interrogation protocols conducted by Boris Shchukin (according to procedural norms, they are filed with the case) are categorically at odds with the testimony of the same witnesses at the trial, including how exactly Shchukin interrogated them. It is also possible that the third case, in which Zinaida Terekhova appears, will eventually be pursued. It has now been sent for further investigation to the Kalinin District Prosecutor's Office. True, one of the witnesses, Zhdanov, said that the new investigator Chistyakov, from the same prosecutor’s office of the Kalininsky district, is already allegedly forcing them to change their testimony, which allowed them to initiate a criminal case against Terekhova.

Mikhail TELEKHOV, St. Petersburg