The Supreme Court of Tatarstan recognized the legality of the arrest of Alexey Semin

The Supreme Court (SC) of Tatarstan upheld the arrest in absentia of businessman from the Russian Forbes list Alexey Semin, accused in absentia in the case of a fire in the Admiral shopping center, rejecting the corresponding complaint from his lawyers. Moreover, at the request of the prosecutor's office, the court made the term of the preventive measure indefinite. Thus, the arrest, which has entered into legal force, completely freed the hands of law enforcement officers for the speedy extradition to the Russian Federation of Mr. Semin, who is in France. The businessman's lawyers intend to appeal the decision of the Supreme Court.

Photo: Dmitry Lebedev, Kommersant / buy photo

On Friday, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tajikistan considered complaints from the lawyers of the chairman of the board of directors of AS Management (ASG investment group) Alexey Semin against the decision of the Sovetsky District Court of Kazan on the arrest of a businessman in absentia. As before, his interests were defended by three lawyers, two of whom were from Moscow - Alexander Makarov and Pavel Fabrizi.

As Kommersant wrote on April 14, the district court ordered an arrest until May 11 at the request of the investigation, which stated that Mr. Semin “does not appear for questioning by investigators” and noted that he was put on the international wanted list.

In their complaint, the lawyers stated that the decision was made “in the absence of evidence”, the district court’s conclusions “do not correspond to the factual circumstances of the case” and that it “did not justify why it accepted the position of the investigation.”

Let us remind you that Mr. Semin was charged in absentia under four articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in connection with the fire in the Admiral shopping center that occurred in Kazan on March 11, as a result of which 17 people died. According to the investigation, the factory premises he purchased were illegally reconstructed into one building and then leased to Zarya LLC. Mr. Semin, the investigation believes, knowing about fire safety violations in the building, did not take action.

The businessman was arrested in his absence

The lawyers pointed out that Mr. Semin “is not the subject of a crime” since “the responsibilities (of monitoring the building - Kommersant) are not assigned to him,” and that the tenant is responsible. Mr. Fabrizi considers the accusation “far-fetched”, and failure to appear before investigators alone cannot be grounds for arrest. “Then we need to arrest all the witnesses and victims? It happens that they are also often searched for...,” the lawyer is perplexed. According to Mr. Fabrizi, after the building was leased to Zara, the businessman could not do anything: “It’s the same as if we are now going to some LLC and starting to take some measures. They will say to us: who are you?” As for the reconstruction, there is testimony from witnesses that Mr. Semin did not know about it, since “he came to the Russian Federation extremely rarely.” “The investigation says that Semin poses a danger to society. We must bow to the investigator for not asking for capital punishment yet. This victorious triumph of lawlessness must someday stop! - Mr. Makarov supported his colleague, noting that his client, a philanthropist, for example, takes an active part in the restoration of historical monuments of Kazan.

In turn, the representative of the Tatarstan prosecutor's office, Natalya Kozhevnikova, asked that the lawyers' complaints be left unsatisfied. She asked to exclude from the district court’s ruling the “date indicating the end of the period of detention.” The prosecutor's office believes that the period assigned by the district court "is not sufficient for the extradition procedure and may lead to the refusal of the competent authorities of a foreign state to participate in the prosecution of the accused, which will avoid criminal liability."

As a result, the Supreme Court did not satisfy the lawyers’ complaint. But he decided to satisfy the request of the prosecutor's office and actually made the arrest indefinite. According to Kommersant, Interpol has already joined the procedure related to the detention and extradition of Mr. Semin.

After the meeting, the lawyers stated that they intend to further defend their point of view and will challenge the decision of the Supreme Court.

Andrey Smirnov, Kazan

How workers were connected to the Admiral

On March 17, a court in Tatarstan arrested workers Nail Gabdulkhaev, Firdinat Uldanov and Albert Khalikov, who may be directly responsible for the fire in the Admiral shopping complex. According to investigators, they carelessly carried out work on the roof of the building using a gas burner. The workers did not admit their guilt. Read more

How the CEO of an investment group got involved in the Admiral business

In Kazan, a court, as part of a criminal investigation into a fire in the Admiral shopping complex (TC), arrested Robert Khairullin, general director of AS Management CJSC (ASG investment group). According to investigators, at his instigation, the company's production plant premises were illegally converted into a shopping mall and leased out. As a result, fire safety rules were “violated,” which included a layout that was unsuitable for this type of retail space.Read more

Absentee and indefinitely