Search specialist

The hero of Novaya Gazeta died - the legendary judicial medical expert Yevgeny Nikolaev. His life costs books, films and monuments

It is Nikolaev to our wretched justice that owes the few facts of the triumph of the law that still happen. They happen so rarely and at such a price that each time they fall into the annals about the great battle for justice. This, of course, is unnatural: to spend so much time from your life to defend what is guaranteed to everyone by law and from birth. But in Russia differently - it does not work.

Many years ago, I arrived from Rostov to Pyatigorsk on a train, in which I was put by another of my friend, the other legendary forensic expert Vladimir Shcherbakov, the former head of the Rostov 124th Laboratory of the Ministry of Defense, created in the early 90s to identify the soldiers who died in the Chechen war. At the beginning of the second Chechen laboratory, they reorganized. The unique team of experts, who first put in Russia all types of identification of human remains, including DNA research, broke up.

The laboratory was unidentified in the refrigerators of the laboratory remained more than 300 sprinkled soldiers' bodies ... And how many dead inhabitants of Chechnya were subject to identification - no one ever thought.

I remember how very long and meaninglessly I went through the corridors of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Emergencies, the Council and the State Duma with the Shcherbakovsky project to create the state laboratory "Identification of citizens who have fused in military conflicts, terrorist acts and natural disasters."

When it became clear that the state does not need this, Vladimir Vladimirovich created his own “124th laboratory”-an independent expert institution that gives an imprisonment for official examinations. Having stuck in two small rooms of the emergency room of the Rostov city hospital, the 124th continued to defend the principles of her majesty of the judicial medical examination.

Sciences are very accurate, therefore it is extremely and inconvenient for those who are used to sculpting criminal cases, to falsify evidence and pass unwarpated sentences. In Pyatigorsk, the first (and, unfortunately, the only) branch of the Shcherbakovskaya “124th laboratory” was opened in Pyatigorsk. He was headed by Yevgeny Nikolaev led from the Stavropol Bureau of the forensic expertiza. Then, under the pressure of the head of the regional bureau of SME, Anatoly Kopylov from there left immediately a dozen of the most qualified experts who refused to change the principles of their profession.

“I am the leader of the Expert organized crime group,” Yevgeny Borisovich introduced me, literally pulling me off the footboard of the car. - Well, first on Mashuk to Lermontov?

In this “first to Mashuk,” was all Nikolaev. He is always and to everyone with whom I introduced him, conveying his knowledge and energy, like a relay wand, showed his amazing taste for life. He was very modest, but, nevertheless, a real and proud reusader (he tried to give everything to the team of the “new” “exceptional Arabian foal”). He gently loved the Cavminvods and his house in Pyatigorsk, although his daughters have long moved to another country (in which “safe and ... boring,” said Yevgeny Borisovich). He always met guests in the highest category of Caucasian hospitality, and until the guest tamped the first, second, third, compote, - he did not proceed to the documents.

“Expert organized crime groups”-so I later called the very first article about a bunch of professionals dismissed from the Stavropol Regional Bureau of the forensic medical examinations. Although the criminals, of course, were those who, on behalf of and on the form of the state, stapled the “necessary” medical conclusions. To someone, these falsified conclusions cost many years of prison. And someone is getting rid of punishment. Including murder.

The case of Masha Gubareva . The girl was found dead on the street near the house. The state forensic expert established the cause of death: "hypothermia." Although all the circumstances testified to the murder, the investigator, who knew perfectly not only that Masha was killed, but also who the killer took advantage of the official “diagnosis” and covered the case. Quite by accident, Masha’s parents - Sergey and Olga - learned about Nikolaev. Evgeny Borisovich proved that the corpse has no signs of hypothermia, and the cause of death must be established. There was an exhumation during which a fracture of the cervical vertebrae was installed. The killer who escaped to another country was extracted to Russia and is now sitting. Experts who gave a false conclusion on “hypothermia” remained at large.

The case of Vyacheslav Merekhi , raped in the police with a mop. In order to fragrance of the police, the commission of experts of the Stavropol Bureau of SME, headed by the head of Anatoly Kopylov, came up with a diagnosis that excludes the very possibility of using such torture. But as a result of incredible efforts (initially it was Evgeny Borisovich) police officers still received deadlines. False experts once again remained free.

... The statistics of Nikolaev’s personal struggle with windmills were actually modest: there were only one judicial victory for dozens of refuted official conclusions. The overwhelming number of false experts, the system calmly digested, passing the sentences by innocent, leading the guilty from responsibility. Evgeny Borisovich has long lost the hope that the Investigative Committee will ever be excited about the accumulated “compromising evidence” for the leadership of the Stavropol Bureau of SME.

At first, the purpose of his struggle was purely personal: to recover at work after an unfair dismissal and avenge those who have taken him the opportunity to do what they love. And then something in him ... no, it did not break. Switching. The goal of the struggle was justice in the total sense. Not for himself, but for science and for those who were needed by his knowledge and professionalism.

... It was in May when the cancer returned. With slaughter force after remission.

Evgeny Borisovich lost a lot in weight in a few days and already barely walked. He spoke with difficulty - there was a special tube in the throat (stoma). To testify in court, he clamped the hole into which the tube entered, and barely audible, very slowly explained to anyone that unnecessarily understood the medical terms without his explanation.

This was the process in the case of the former boss of the threat of ATS of the city of Cherkessk Ruslan Rakhaev . Rakhaev was accused of torture and death of the detainee. Nikolaev gave a conclusion proving: the detainee was brutally beaten by other police officers a few hours before he got into the police department of the city of Cherkessk. It was these beatings that caused a pain shock, which caused death. Rakhaev - innocent. He was set up.

The judge, the prosecutor and the victims behaved vile in relation to Evgeny Borisovich. The judge for a long time murdered him, seriously ill, in the corridor, and then interrogated for several hours. The prosecutor demanded "speak louder." The victims mimicked. And this is all because Nikolaev completely defeated the accusation convenient for everyone with his testimonies and knowledge. Evgeny Borisovich from this last trip for justice had a terrible memory.

He cried with resentment.

And he cried when I called him to inform him: based on his arguments, the judge refused to pass the accusatory sentence to Ruslan Rakhaev and returned the case for investigation, considering the accusation unproven. In our coordinate system, this decision is equal to an acquittal.

Evgeny Borisovich Nikolaev died, knowing that he had saved a person. Once again.