Dmitry Zakharchenko admitted that he is not a saint

The richest Russian policeman explained his landing by a conflict with the FSB.
16.10.2019
Kommersant
Origin source
The Moscow City Court began considering the appeal of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and complaints about the verdict of Dmitry Zakharchenko, to whom the Presnensky District Court sentenced him to 13 years in prison for receiving bribes on an especially large scale ”(part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and obstruction of justice using his official position (part 3, Art. 294 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). On Tuesday, a convict appeared in court, who claimed to have been a victim of a miscarriage by law enforcement officers for having uncovered billions of embezzlement in which officers of the M department of the FSB of Russia were allegedly involved.

After the three judges rejected most of the lawyers' requests (for questioning witnesses and experts, as well as requesting additional materials), prosecutor Milan Digaeva made a statement.

Recalling that Dmitry Zakharchenko was found guilty of receiving a 50 percent discount card from the owner of La Maree fish restaurant chain Mehdi Duss, with which he saved about 3 million rubles when visiting institutions, and also warned the financial director in 2016 Note-bank Galina Marchukova about the upcoming searches, she asked to leave the verdict in this part in force. But she demanded to cancel it in the part where the colonel was acquitted - according to the episode of receiving a bribe of $ 800 thousand from Mehdi Duss along with ex-FSB officer for general patronage of the restaurateur’s business.

It took the prosecutor Digaeva no more than ten minutes to confirm her submission. In contrast, Dmitry Zakharchenko, former deputy head of the T department of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, spoke until the evening.

Wanting to convince the court of his own innocence and to refute most of the arguments of the prosecution, he sometimes took time, rummaging through his notes, sometimes repeated. But despite this, the judges patiently listened to his performance hours until nine in the evening.

The ex-colonel immediately stated that he was asking the judges to uphold the Presnensky court’s verdict of acquitting him in a bribe of $ 800 thousand, and for the episodes in which he was found guilty, to acquit. The further speech of Dmitry Zakharchenko was replete with references to the testimonies of prosecution witnesses, as well as defense witnesses, quoting which, the convict constantly tried to convince the court that no one had ever confirmed the charges imputed to him.

At the same time, he claimed that only Mehdi Duss and his friend Major General of the Russian Guard Alexei Laushkin confirmed the data on the use of the discount card. But, according to Dmitry Zakharchenko, both of them were ready to confirm anything if only to avoid punishment for “giving bribes and mediating in bribery”.

The convict paid special attention to the unwillingness of the judge of the Presnensky court to study the data from the server of the La Maree restaurants, where, according to the investigation, Dmitry Zakharchenko regularly dined at a 50 percent discount.

Which is what the investigation regarded as receiving benefits for the “general patronage” of the restaurateur Duss business. So Dmitry Zakharchenko claimed that he had repeatedly requested the exact statement about the use of the controversial card in this restaurant, but instead a paper was presented to the court, which, according to the convict, “could be made by anyone using his own computer”. “And when they made a request for a new statement, the answer came that the restaurant was reconstructed and the data from the server was erased,” condemned Zakharchenko indignantly. “But after the verdict was passed, we learned that all the data was preserved during the equipment upgrade and can be requested ! ”By the way, Dmitry Zakharchenko asked the judges of the Moscow City Court about this, but they refused his request, indicating that the appeal hearing does not provide for the study of new facts in the case.

Dmitry Zakharchenko also repeatedly reminded that no one had taken this discount card from him and no one had ever seen it in his eyes. As no one has proven, he and Dmitry Senin received a bribe of $ 800 thousand for patronizing the Duss business. “All these doubts could be resolved by Dmitry Senin,” the convict declared. “But he is not!” And in general, no one is looking for him! ” At the same time, he denied that he entered into a “criminal conspiracy” with Dmitry Senin since 2014. “I called Senin only once in 2009, which is proved by billing (data from telephone connections.” “Kommersant”), ”said Dmitry Zakharchenko.“ But Mehdi Duss constantly called two numbers belonging to the staff of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, who patronized his business! ”

Dmitry Zakharchenko actually claimed that his case was “custom-made”. “I am not a saint, I live in the real world,” he told the judging panel, “but I didn’t commit the imputed episodes.” At the same time, he hinted that he got into the development of his own security department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs after he discovered fraud at the Moscow Electrozavod OJSC. Dmitry Zakharchenko claimed that among its founders was an active employee of the M department of the FSB.

“When I was shut down (arrested. -“ Kommersant ”), the case there (at the factory .—“ Kommersant ”) was stopped, and the whole investigation ended in nothing!” The ex-colonel was indignant. The trial will continue on Thursday.

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