Smon on a summer night

“Tru-Tu-Tu”-this is exactly the sound of an FSB officer during an illegal search of a lawyer cabinet

It is unlikely that a young investigator named Aboev A.S. He did not realize that he performs, to put it mildly, the action is illegal. But this action was so everyday that the doubts of investigator Aboev probably did not torment at all. At night on June 7, 2017, the investigator was more occupied by the writings in the protocol and the lawyer annoyed, to whose remarks, Aboev was forced to lazily reacted as an annoying fly flying around the room.

That night, investigator Aboev detained businessman Konstantin Ponomarev, known for his many years of lawsuit with the Swedish concern IKEA. And along with the detainee without drawing up the protocol, he went with a search to the lawyer’s office to the businessman’s defender. Masks took the door, turned the door, turned everything upside down in the office, raked folders with documents with a lawyer secret, and took them to the UK.

Subsequently, on the basis of these papers seized in the lawyer’s office, investigator Aboev will build against the businessman fraud accusations, tax evasion and the organization of obviously false denunciation.

The investigator did not have permission for a night raid.

Aboev and his authorities went more cunning, namely, used the fact that the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for a search mechanism “in cases that are not tolerant” - without the sanction of the court. That is, the investigator must notify the prosecutor and the court that such a search has passed, and the court already makes a decision on recognition or non -recognition of the search legal. In this case, investigator Kondratenko signed an empty form “On the search for a search”, gave it to investigator Aboev, and investigator Aboev retroactively entered the date and place of production of the search - a lawyer cabinet, which was leased specifically for this apartment on Tverskaya Street in Moscow. That is, the procedural person - the investigator Kondratenko, putting his signature on the decision on the search, did not bother that neither the date nor the place of the upcoming search was indicated in the paper.

Before the search, the owner of the lawyer cabinet and his arrivals, of course, explained to the investigator Aboev that it was a lawyer’s office, showed him a witness to the certificate of the Russian Bar Chamber and other documents confirming the fact of using the apartment as a lawyer's workplace. But the investigator waved his hand and on his command people in balaclavas, with scraps and sledgehammers hacked the front door and penetrated the room.

The FSB officers who conducted the search refused to call their names. The certificate of the lawyer’s chamber, that it was a lawyer’s office, did not even look.

At the request of one of the lawyers-Andrei Smatsky-still draw attention to the documents, one of the FSB officers made a sound (I quote from the audio recording): “Tru-Tu-Tu”.

And investigator Aboev told the lawyer that if he once again takes the folder with the documents, he, the investigator, will remove him from the premises (there is an audio in the editorial office).

The search took place non-standard: the investigator sat at the table and wrote down something in the protocol, the witnesses slept nearby on the couch, and the citizens in balaclavs took out lawyer documents from all the boxes and cabinets, the part was dumped to the floor, and some were handed over to the investigator.

The witnesses subsequently not only confirm with their signatures what they did not see, because they slept, but also give written indications that the investigator during the search “The Law did not violate”.

During the search, the lawyer several times asked the investigator to come to his senses and look at at least one eye at the certificate of the Russian Law Chamber, to which Mr. Abuev replied: “I will finish, I’ll look” (the audio recording is in the editorial office). The investigator refused to attach a certificate of the lawyer’s chamber to the search protocol, advising the lawyer to send with this certificate to the Channelia of the Investigative Committee in Technical Lane. The clock was 6 in the morning.

The Presnensky court of Moscow recognizes this search legal. The Presidium of the Moscow City Court doubted the legality and decided to revise the case. The Presnensky court did not find any violations again:

According to the judges, the investigator, together with the FSB, have the right to make raids at night with sledgehammer and crowbar and take all the documentation with a lawyer secret.

The defenders of businessman Ponomarev then reached the Supreme Court, to whom the initiative of investigator Aboev seemed egregious. But ... The Presnensky court for the third time recognized the lawsuit in the lawyer’s office, which he confirmed: lawyers and their clients in Russia are not protected by anything. They can be beaten and closed to the IVS as a lawyer Benyash in Krasnodar, to arrange against them the cop provocations as against the lawyer Markin, who has been in a pre -trial detention center in Moscow, or arrange semi -bank raids on lawyer rooms. The reason for the manic “sequence” specifically the Presnensky court is understandable: if we recognize the illegality of the search, then there will be no formal grounds for a further investigation against businessman Ponomarev. After all, all the documents on the basis of which the charge is built were stolen from the lawyer’s office on the summer night of June 7, 2017.