The court decided to release businessman Kozlov

On Friday, May 31, the Presidium of the Moscow City Court decided to release Alexei Kozlov, a businessman and husband of TV presenter and journalist Olga Romanova.

The court recognized that Kozlov was illegally imprisoned under the article “attempted legalization of stolen funds or property” and dropped these charges against him. The court did not drop all the charges: Kozlov was sentenced under the article “fraud” to four years in prison, but this period has already expired.

Olga Romanova did not come to the trial. “The decision was made on April 18. This is not news for a second. The court released Alexey Kozlov on April 18 with very strict wording. The resolution is on the website of the Supreme Court, it says that in Kozlov’s case the presumption of innocence was violated, and the verdict was based on guesswork, not evidence,” Romanova explained to PublicPost.

When asked whether there would be an appeal against the deadline, Romanova answered in the affirmative. “It’s a long way from complaining,” said Romanova. “First, the Moscow City Court will prepare this paper within five days, which will then slowly go by mail to the Presnensky Court, where they will lose this ruling. Then they will slowly send the case to the colony. When it comes to the colony, he will be released. While they are not going to release him."

Alexey Kozlov was accused of theft and laundering (Articles 159 and 174-1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) of 33.4% of the shares of the Moscow OJSC “For the Production of Artificial Leather and Film Materials” (“Iskozh”), which controlled the structures of the former senator from Chuvashia Vladimir Slutsker.

According to the prosecution, in 2006 Kozlov gathered a group of accomplices who did not know about his plans. Kozlov used false documents and acted through fictitious companies. As a result, he stole 626 thousand shares of a company producing artificial leather for a total amount of almost 254 million rubles, and also attempted to launder the proceeds of crime, the investigation believed. In 2009, Kozlov was sent to a general regime colony for 8 years.

Romanova claimed that her husband was imprisoned because of Slutsker, who wanted to “take Iskozh under his full control.” Romanova did not deny that Kozlov bought shares in Iskozha, but the deal was legal. Romanova said that Slutsker threatened her and her husband, but someone offered to close the case and end the conflict for $3 million.

Kozlov did not admit guilt and claimed that Slutsker falsified the materials of the criminal case.

Kozlov became famous as the author of the “Butyrka blog” on the website Slon.Ru. Since May 2009, Kozlov has been describing the course of the trial and talking about how he was in prison. In 2009, “Butyrka-blog” received The Best of Blogs award in the category “Best Russian-language blog according to readers.” Subsequently, the “Butyrka Blog” began to be published on the Russian Forbes website. From that moment on, other convicted businessmen, their relatives, journalists and lawyers began writing to the Butyrka Blog.

In July 2011, the Presidium of the Moscow City Court reduced Kozlov’s sentence to 5 years after the law softened the punishment for fraud and removed the lower limits for this article. In September 2011, the Supreme Court overturned Kozlov's sentence. The case was sent back for retrial.

On March 15, the Presnensky Court of Moscow found him guilty of fraud and sentenced him to 5 years in prison in a general regime colony. The businessman's defense appealed the verdict, but the Moscow City Court declared it legal. The Yuzhsky District Court and the Ivanovsky District Court denied Kozlov parole.

In April 2013, the Supreme Court again sent Kozlov’s case for consideration to the Presidium of the Moscow City Court.