Translated material
Video with a view of the prison
Ex-major Dymovsky was arrested on charges of fraud
The Primorsky District Court of the city of Novorossiysk last Friday issued a warrant for the arrest of former police major Alexei Dymovsky, who became famous throughout the country for his video message to Prime Minister Putin. In his message, Mr. Dymovsky spoke about “police lawlessness” and accused his superiors of numerous violations and corruption. The disgraced policeman is accused of fraud. According to investigators, during four years of work in the authorities, he illegally embezzled about 27 thousand rubles.The fact that charges of embezzlement and disclosure of state secrets were being prepared against Alexei Dymovsky became known back in mid-December last year. Then the head of the Department of Internal Security (DSB) of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yuri Draguntsov, announced this. According to him, the fact that Mr. Dymovsky may be involved in these crimes became clear during the investigation, which was carried out against the major since the beginning of May.
Speaking about the possible disclosure of state secrets by a former employee of the Novorossiysk Department of Internal Affairs, the head of the DSS explained that certain documents either classified as “Top Secret” or “For Official Use”, which were in the work of Alexei Dymovsky, disappeared without a trace. Therefore, the question arose, “Where did he take them?” Regarding the theft of money, Mr. Draguntsov noted that we are talking about funds allocated for “operational needs.” And if Mr. Dymovsky has not yet been charged with disclosing state secrets, and it is unknown whether it will appear in the future, then the ex-policeman was nevertheless charged with theft of money. Qualifying this, however, as fraud committed using one's official position.
Last Friday, Alexey Dymovsky posted a new, already tenth, appeal on the Internet (only his voice is heard in it, and there is no video). In this appeal, the ex-police major said that on the morning of January 22, he was given a copy of the summons, according to which on the same day he must appear at the Primorsky District Court of Novorossiysk to consider the decision to place him in custody. According to him, the investigation motivated its request by the fact that it fears the pressure that the disgraced policeman could exert on witnesses, as well as the fact that he could influence the course of the investigation.
According to Mr. Dymovsky, he has no doubt that he will be arrested, since this case, in his opinion, is “political and ordered.” The former police major concluded his address with the words: “I am always with you. I keep myself cheerful, cheerful, regularly. Good luck!". Alexei Dymovsky's fears were confirmed - the court agreed with the investigation's arguments and issued a warrant for the arrest of the ex-policeman. As Vadim Karastelev, a human rights activist representing the interests of Mr. Dymovsky, said, “during the court hearing, it was explained that he allegedly threatened someone from the law enforcement officers who were involved in the investigation of the fraud case.”
Mr. Dymovsky's lawyer, Sergei Gubar, expressed dissatisfaction with the way the court hearing went. According to him, the defense lawyer’s request to familiarize himself with the materials presented by the investigators was not even considered. As the defense lawyer noted, “an additional method of influencing Dymovsky” could be placing him in custody on Friday evening, “specifically for the purpose of, for example, not putting him on payroll on weekends and not accepting deliveries for him.” In turn, Vadim Karastelev said that on Saturday Mr. Gubar tried to give his client warm clothes, but he was unable to do this - “the lawyer brought things to Dymovsky, but, according to internal instructions, he will receive them only on Monday.” “It’s very cold in Krasnodar now, we are afraid that he might catch a cold in the pre-trial detention center,” Mr. Karastelev said.
As stated by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, a criminal case against Alexey Dymovsky under the article “fraud committed using an official position” was opened at the end of December 2009. On January 20, the UPC announced that formal charges had been brought against him. According to the investigation, during four years of service, Dymovsky embezzled about 27 thousand rubles, which were allocated for carrying out operational investigative activities. The former police officer himself claims that he can document the intended use of this money - for test purchases and other activities to expose criminals in drug trafficking.
Leading Russian human rights activists have already expressed outrage at the arrest of Alexei Dymovsky. “The man spoke out about the illegal actions of his bosses. What, you can't? Now he is under arrest. This is outrageous,” said the head of Russia’s oldest independent human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva. “We will help him with a lawyer, we will try to track his fate and we will make his case public.”
We would like to remind you that Major Alexei Dymovsky, a then-current employee of the Novorossiysk Internal Affairs Directorate, posted on the Internet his video message to the country’s leadership on November 7, 2009. He spoke about corruption and violations by his superiors and his colleagues, and also called on Prime Minister Putin to restore order in law enforcement agencies. He explained his action by saying that he was tired of the “lawlessness” that was happening in the Russian police.
His statement caused a wide public outcry, and Dymovsky himself gained more than a dozen followers. From time to time, current and former law enforcement officers also began posting similar video messages on the World Wide Web, in which they denounced their superiors. At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee began checking the information presented by the major, after which various accusations were rained down on Mr. Dymovsky. Within a few days, the police authorities doubted the sanity of Mr. Dymovsky, at the same time suspecting him of slander, connections with foreign intelligence services and involvement in the murder.