Baza: Golunov case defendant says journalist was followed after receiving “information” from pretrial detention center

Igor Lyakhovets, former head of the drug control department of the Moscow Western Administrative District Department of Internal Affairs, claims that surveillance of Meduza journalist Ivan Golunov began after “information was received” from Moscow’s SIZO-3 on March 29, 2019. The testimony of Lyakhovets, a defendant in the Ivan Golunov case , is published by Baza.

After receiving "information" from the pretrial detention center, Lyakhovets' testimony says, he opened a preliminary operational investigation case "against an unidentified person who uses a telephone with the subscriber number 8910***." The number, as Lyakhovets established, belonged to Golunov. Then, Lyakhovets claims, he received Golunov's actual residential address through Yandex.Taxi.

On May 26, according to the testimony, Lyakhovets learned that Golunov was returning from the Czech Republic to Moscow. "There were reasons to believe that Golunov might be carrying a batch of drugs from the Czech Republic," he said. Lyakhovets claims that he learned of Golunov's return half an hour before his arrival and "due to the short amount of time, the decision to detain him at the airport was cancelled."

According to Lyakhovets, it was decided to establish surveillance of Golunov, "which was actually started on June 3 by detectives Konovalov, Sergaliev and Feofanov." On the first day of surveillance, Konovalov overheard a telephone conversation "about the transfer of some disks."

On June 6, Golunov left his house with a backpack, got on the metro, went to Trubnaya and entered a building on Petrovsky Boulevard. When Golunov, some time later, was leaving this building, according to Lyakhovets’ testimony, “he looked back and began to walk away quickly.” According to Lyakhovets, he considered this behavior suspicious and “advised that Golunov be detained.”

Lyakhovets insists that neither he nor other law enforcement officers committed “illegal actions” against Golunov.

• Denis Konovalov, who is a defendant in the Golunov case, previously testified against Lyakhovets. In particular, he stated that it was Lyakhovets who gave him instructions to plant drugs on Golunov. Konovalov also described how he planted the drugs.