The Prosecutor General’s Office approved the prosecution in the criminal case of the former rector of Kazan State Federal University Ilshat Gafurov, who is charged with inciting two attempts on crime boss Aidar Israfilov. Now the protection of the famous scientist expects to prove in court that not only was he not involved in a particularly serious crime, but that he was unlawfully prosecuted in general, since his innocence had already been established by the prosecutor’s office.
As it became known to Kommersant, the charge in the criminal case of Ilshat Gafurov was approved by Anatoly Razinkin, First Deputy Prosecutor General. The materials have been sent to the Savelovsky District Court of Moscow, and the case has already been assigned to the judge, but the date of the hearing has not yet been set.
According to the Main Investigation Department of the ICR, Ilshat Gafurov was involved in two crimes committed in 1999.
At that time, Mr. Gafurov worked as the head of the administration of the city of Yelabuga. And, according to investigators, he had a conflict with local crime boss Aidar Israfilov. The leader of the Aidar organized crime group, according to the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR, was removed from two attempts. The first attempt ended unsuccessfully, but in August 1999, near the CSKA sports complex in Moscow, the authority was shot dead from a pistol with a silencer. The weapon was found nearby in the cabin of a car abandoned by the killer.
In 2017, for this crime, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan sentenced to 24 years and 11 months in a strict regime colony Ruzal Asadullin (Ruzalik), one of the authorities of the organized criminal community (OPS) “29th complex” from the city of Naberezhnye Chelny. The criminal case stated that the crime was committed for hire, and Israfilov was ordered by a certain Airat Shakirov (Shakirchik), close to the 29th complex. Shakirchik himself was shot dead in 2001.
Ruzalik and another leader of the “complex” Adygan Salyakhov (Alik Bolshoy), who was serving a 25-year sentence, were pointed to Ilshat Gafurov as the alleged customer in 2021.
At the end of the same year, Denis Kolesnikov, head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR, opened a criminal case, in which Ilshat Gafurov was detained in Kazan, taken to Moscow and arrested by the decision of the Basmanny District Court.
At the same time, Adygan Salyakhov first became the main witness for the prosecution, and then the defendant in the criminal case of the murder of Israfilov. The Salyakhov case was separated into a separate proceeding, and now his investigation has been completed. Adygan Salyakhov concluded a pre-trial agreement on cooperation with Deputy Prosecutor General Razinkin, and for the murder of Israfilov, he will apparently be added only a few years to his previous term, otherwise he risked receiving life imprisonment.
By the way, for the duration of the investigation, Salyakhov was transferred from the colony to the capital’s pre-trial detention center, the other day his preventive measure was extended until July 25. Now Alik Bolshoy is getting acquainted with the materials of his criminal case, but before it goes to court, he will testify at the trial of Ilshat Gafurov. Whether the trial will take place with the participation of a jury or not is not yet known.
Ilshat Gafurov categorically denies his involvement in attempts on his authority.
Studying the materials of the investigation and the sentences handed down to the participants of the 29th complex, the defenders, as Kommersant has already reported, discovered an old decision of the investigating authorities of the prosecutor’s office of Tatarstan. They already checked Ilshat Gafurov for involvement in the murder of Aidar Israfilov, and back in 2002 they issued a decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case against the ex-rector “due to the absence of corpus delicti in his actions.”
According to the law, a higher prosecutor could cancel this decision within a year, and then only the court. Supervision and the judiciary did not make such decisions, therefore, the subsequent decision of the deputy head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR, which canceled the decision of an employee of another law enforcement agency, is considered illegal by the defense of Ilshat Gafurov. If the court agrees with the lawyers’ version, then the criminal case will be returned to the Prosecutor General’s Office, and from it to the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR.
Recall that a similar situation arose in the criminal case of the ex-governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal, whose non-involvement in one of the incriminated episodes was established by the prosecutor’s office. As a result, a full-fledged criminal prosecution of the former official, who was eventually sentenced to 22 years for a series of murders and attempts, required a special court decision. It was adopted during the investigation, and the detention of Sergei Furgal in the pre-trial detention center was explained by the prosecution on other episodes. Ilshat Gafurov has only one episode, and he was questioned in advance both by the former participants in the investigation and by the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure.