The criminal case No 18/325507-04. Three episodes from a series of murders and attempted murders. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on April 13, 2004.
On this day, on April 13, 2004, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow was considering a motion of the Office of the Prosecutor General on prolonging the imprisonment of Alexey Pichugin, a former officer of the security service of the Oil Company Yukos. He was apprehended on July 19, 2003. On June 26, 2003, within the framework of the criminal case No 18/325507-04, Pichugin was accused of carrying out a series of murders and attempted murders, committed at the behest of Leonid Nevzlin, one of the “main shareholders” of the Oil Company Yukos.
(See also the article “Murder cases of Alexey Pichugin”. Part One).
Within the framework of the criminal case No 18/325507-04, four episodes of criminal activity were imputed to Alexey Pichugin.
- October 5, 1998 – a beating was committed of Viktor Kolesov, an employee of the company “Rosprom”;
- November 28, 1998 – attempted murder of Olga Kostina, a former employee of the Moscow mayor’s office; near the apartment of her parents a bomb went off.
(See also the article “On this day, Nevzlin’s gang blew up the apartment of a councilor of Moscow’s mayor”. To kill for $15,000).
- November 20, 2002 – the killing of a married couple, of Sergey Gorin and Olga Gorin.
(See also the article “On this day, Nevzlin was neutralizing witnesses”. In November”).
The forth episode imputed to Pichugin – a murder threat, mentioned in 2002, against the entrepreneur Sergey Lobikov, was dropped in court upon a motion of the defense because “the expiry of the term of limitation”.
NOISE, SCANDALS AND PRESSURE ON THE COURT TURNED OUT USELESS
This was the first part of the accusations which allowed to put an end to criminal executions committed by bandits at the commission and in the interest of the Oil Company Yukos. From that moment, all fears of Nevzlin and Khodorkovsky have been connected with Pichugin. “Anything rather than speaking Pichugin!”.
That is why for the liberation of this key witness and executor of their crimes, were used not only information and financial resourced, but also political leverage of the “borehole” swindlers – lawyers, newspapers, deputies.
(See also the article “On this day, from the Parliament gave voice the “Khodorkovsky’s hundred”, How deputies from the parties “Yabloko" and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation" (CPRF) worked off their financing. and the article “On this day, they proposed for Pichugin 3 million rubles and a deputy of the State Duma”).
“The reason of such violent activity was that Pichugin’s lawyers first said that their client “was cooperating with the investigation”. But then the line of defense completely hunkered down – “Pichugin doesn’t admit his guilt”. Apart from that, the defense, each time during considerations of investigation’s motions on the necessity of keeping him in custody, presented the usual arguments – about a “poor health” of the client and that there were no reasons in keeping him in custody. And on April 13, 2004, the consideration in court proceeded according to a typical playbook. Eventually, the level of restriction was kept unchanged. He was left in custody, in the pre-trial detention center “Lefortovo” – to continue to get acquainted, together with his lawyers, with the materials of the criminal case, which consisted of three dozens of volumes”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day the court confirmed the verdict against “benefactors from Yukos laundry”. Under the guise of charitable activity, they siphoned and laundered through shell firms 342 million rubles. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on April 12, 2006).
