One double murder and two attempted murders by order of Leonid Nevzlin. Three Alexey Pichugin’s homicide episodes were handed over to the Moscow City Court. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on June 4, 2004.
On this day 19 years ago, on June 4, 2004, the former employee of Yukos security service Alexey Pichugin and his lawyers completed the studying of the materials of the criminal case on charges of murders and attempted murders, which allowed to talk about the near handing over of the case to the Moscow City Court for consideration the charges on the merit.
Alexey Pichugin, born 1962, the head of the department of inner economic security of the Oil Company NK Yukos, was apprehended on June 19, 2003. On June 21, 2003, the court selected a measure of restriction for him – detention in custody. On June 26, 2003, within the framework of the criminal case No 18/325507-04 a charge was brought against him of killing the director of the CJSC “Don Grupp” Sergey Gorin and his wife. Pichugin had employed Gorin as foreman of killers from the town Tambov.
(See also the article “On this day, Nevzlin was neutralizing witnesses”).
A bit later, in August 2003, another three “homicide” episodes were added to these charges:
- On October 5, 1998, the beating took place of Viktor Kolesov, an employee of the company “Rosprom”;
- On November 28, 1998, an attempted murder was committed against an employee of Moscow City Hall Olga Kostina – near the apartment of her parents a homemade bomb was exploded;
(See also the article “On this day, Nevzlin’s gang blew up the apartment of a councilor of Moscow’s mayor”).
The fourth episode, imputed to Alexey Pichugin, against the entrepreneur Sergey Lobikov, was dated 2002. During the proceedings, which took place in 2004, on the motion of the defense, the mentioned episode was dropped because of expiry of the limitation period.
PICHUGIN’S HENCHMAN – WITNESS AND MIDDLEMAN
Therefore, the court was to make an appraisal of the materials of the investigation on three episodes of the criminal activity of Alexey Pichugin and members of a group of bandits who, under supervision of Leonid Nevzlin, serviced shady interests of the robber-barons from Yukos and “Menatep”. The materials of the case made up three dozens of volumes, with part of the documents marked “confidential”.
Together with Alexey Pichugin, on the defendants’ dock was also Alexey Peshkun. Peshkun was a witness on the episode connected with the murders of the Gorins, husband and wife. At the same time, the mediation was imputed to him in the organizing of the attempted murder against Viktor Kolesov and Olga Kostina. Alexey Pichugin’s defense, having completed the studying of the materials of the case, said the defendants would make use of the right to choose the format of the process and filed a motion for the case to be judged by a panel of jurors.
SCANDALS DIDN’T HELP THE CRIMINALS
The hearings on the merits of the criminal case against Alexey Pichugin, employee of Yukos security service, and his henchman Alexey Peshkun on the first three episodes of the indictment began on October 4, 2004. Because of the presence in the files of the case documents marked “confidential”, it was decided to carry out the process in camera, and that was used not only by the lawyers of the defendants, who rather peculiarly interpreted the proceedings in court, but also by the press, greased by the swindlers from Yukos.
(See also the article “On this day, Alexey Pichugin appeared before a jury trial”).
However, numerous scandals, fantastic speculations, and other information garbage created by Yukos PR-machine, didn’t help a lot the defendants.
(See also the article “We ask to adjudge guilty Pichugin and Peshkun in full measure”. The picture of the criminal activity of Pichugin A.V. as expounded by the state prosecution)
“PICHUGIN DOESN’T DESERVE CONDESCENSION”
In the Spring 2005, the jurors, having heard the materials of the case, delivered the verdict and adjudged Pichugin guilty of ordering and organizing of murders and attempted murders, and indicated that that “Pichugin doesn’t deserve condescension”. On the basis of the guilty verdict of the panel of jurors, the Moscow City Court sentenced the head of the department of inner security of the Oil Company NK Yukos Alexey Pichugin to 20 years of imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony
Alexey Peshkun, the second defendant of the case, received condescension from the jurors and was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment in a colony with a strict regime.
NEVZLIN’S BLOODY SHADOW AND THE GHOST OF MIKHAIL SHESTOPAL
“In the case of Alexey Pichugin there is no dominant names”, wrote the newspaper “Kommersant”’. Yet, the media outlet could get from the lawyers a very interesting detail – in the volume 25 of the criminal case emerged materials that, according to the lawyers, had not been there earlier. At issue was the presenting for identification to the bandit Igor Korovnikov photos of the head of Yukos internal security service Mikhail Shespopal and co-owner of Yukos Leonid Nevzlin. The latter was identified by the bandit. Apart from that, the newspaper didn’t exclude that new criminal episodes could be brought against Pichugin.
(See also the article “On this day, a new series of murders and attempted murders was brought against Pichugin”).
SECOND SERIES OF LEONID NEVZLIN’S ORDERS
In fact, it was made on April 14, 2005, when the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation accused Alexey Pichugin of organizing the murders of Valentina Korneyeva, director of the trading firm “Feniks”, Vladimir Petukhov, mayor of the town Nefteyugansk, as well of two attempted murders of Yevgeny Rybin, managing director of the company “East Petroleum Handelsgas GmbH”.
As was established during the investigation and the proceedings, Alexey Pichugin had acted at the behest of Leonid Nevzlin and with his money. That was proved during proceedings in absentia on the charges against Nevzlin L.B. of a series of contract murders and attempted murders, and it was reflected in the verdict from August 1, 2008, passed by the Moscow City Court that had adjudged Leonid Nevzlin guilty and had sentenced him to life imprisonment.
“It came to be known a bit later, and on June 4, 2004, Alexey Pichugin, the helpful organizer of murders, was tried on the first case”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, in Switzerland, they refused to defreeze accounts of Yukos shareholders”. There were times when the Supreme Court of Switzerland had cared about law and justice. Suspicious $5 billions. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on June 3, 2004).
