On December 6, the Moscow City Court continued the consideration of the appeal in the case of ex-colonel…

On December 6, the Moscow City Court continued to consider the appeal in the case of ex-colonel “policeman” Dmitry Zakharchenko. The first meeting of this process took place on November 15 (the Cheka-OGPU wrote about it here), but it lasted less than an hour and was postponed to the beginning of December due to the fact that neither Zakharchenko nor the businessman Valery Markelov, who is involved in this case, were able to accept participation in it. The defense asked the Fifth Collegium for Criminal Cases (judge-reporter Marina Larkina) to postpone the meeting to ensure the appearance of Zakharchenko and Markelov. Let us remember that the latter is undergoing difficult treatment for pancreatic cancer, which was discovered by the FSIN commission while still in pre-trial detention and which caused a serious public campaign in support of Markelov. Judge of the Presnensky Court Sergei Artemov (after the announcement of the verdict in the Zakharchenko case, he was promoted to the post of judge of the Moscow City Court) released Markelov for emergency treatment from the pre-trial detention center, after which he underwent more than a dozen courses of chemotherapy. Markelov’s condition is currently assessed as extremely serious.

The meeting began with finding out Zakharchenko’s whereabouts: the court announced a technical break in order to figure out where he was. “The delivery was properly completed, but it was not in the car that arrived from Lefortovo,” said the presiding judge. “Probably already in Mordovia,” suggested Vasily Kritinin (he and Viktor Belevtsov participated in the meeting via video link). Markelov did not attend the hearing for medical reasons (his condition continues to deteriorate: the lawyers submitted the relevant documents).

Zakharchenko had to wait about an hour for delivery. He was obviously worried, lost weight and became haggard. Zakharchenko stated that he needed additional time to familiarize himself with the case materials and audio protocols (“I filed five petitions about this,” he emotionally repeated, “but for some reason they are not giving me physical evidence and audio protocols!”)

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After hearing this, the presiding judge raised the issue of returning the criminal case to the Presnensky Court. She cited the reasons as improper familiarization of the accused with the case materials, as well as Markelov’s illness, due to which he was not able to properly familiarize himself with the documents. The defenders unanimously supported this scenario, and state prosecutor Milana Digaeva did not object.

After a 15-minute meeting, the judicial panel removed the case from appeal consideration and returned the case to the Presnensky Court on the grounds listed above. The Cheka-OGPU will monitor developments.