On the morning of November 15, the Moscow City Court began considering the appeal in the case of ex-Colonel…

On the morning of November 15, the Moscow City Court began considering the appeal in the case of ex-colonel “militiaman” Dmitry Zakharchenko, about whom the Cheka-OGPU wrote a lot. Let us recall that the Presnensky court announced (the verdict on May 17. The defense was going to appeal it. On October 19, the documents were received by the Moscow City Court. The case was accepted for consideration by the Fifth Panel of the Criminal Cases Collegium (the reporting judge is Marina Larkina).

The announcement of the Presnensky court’s verdict in the Zakharchenko case was accompanied by a scandal: the businessman Valery Markelov involved in this case was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer by the FSIN commission (the Cheka-OGPU talked about this here): after numerous delays and a serious public campaign, judge Sergei Artemov was forced release him from the pre-trial detention center for emergency treatment. It is interesting that Artemov himself, after the guilty verdict in the Zakharchenko case, was promoted: already in July of this year he was appointed judge of the Moscow City Court.

The presiding judge (the hearing began an hour late, for which the judges apologized) immediately announced that no important decisions should be expected today. Viktor Belevtsov and Vasily Kritinin took part in the meeting via videoconferencing (VCC). Dmitry Zakharchenko was not delivered from Lefortovo, and it was not possible to ensure his participation in videoconferencing (there was only one room for videoconferencing, which turned out to be occupied). Valery Markelov was unable to take part due to being in hospital for treatment.

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Having discussed procedural issues (such as the period required for Belevtsov and Kritinin to study the audio protocols: the latter insisted on 30, the prosecution – on 10 days), the court asked the state prosecution about the possibility of continuing the hearing. “Please postpone,” said the prosecutor. Markelov’s defense stated that their client wants to participate in the hearings, but cannot do this for objective reasons. “My client underwent 12 courses of chemotherapy, a new focus of the disease was discovered, and in addition, Markelov became worse,” said his lawyer Alexander Gofshtein. Other lawyers, as well as Belevtsov and Kritinin, supported this petition, adding that Zakharchenko would also like to take part in the court hearing in person.

The next meeting is scheduled for December 6. The Cheka-OGPU will follow the news.