All charges against the ex-head of the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant (KrAZ) Anatoly Bykov were to be dropped and the defense of the businessman demanded to justify him during the judicial debate. The entrepreneur will be charged with incitement to contract killing of a businessman Andrey Nekolov and an attempt on the life of the vice-president of the regional boxing federation Andrey Grabovsky. Earlier, the prosecutor’s office requested 12 years in prison for Anatoly Bykov, and taking into account the previous sentence, 18 years in prison. On April 21, the businessman will make his final speech.
In Krasnoyarsk, court debates on the second criminal case of Anatoly Bykov, former chairman of the board of directors of the Krasnoyarsk aluminum plant and ex-deputy of the regional parliament, have ended.
Anatoly Bykov is accused of hiring a hitman for $50,000 in 2004 to kill Andrei Nekolov, founder of a Krasnoyarsk industrial waste disposal company, and Andrei Grabovsky, vice president of the regional boxing federation.
The first allegedly refused to conduct joint business with him, the second went over to the camp of his opponent – a crime boss nicknamed Diplomat. The meeting with the killer Alexander Zhivitsa (Bul), according to investigators, took place in the household of Anatoly Bykov in the village of Udachny.
However, the contractor, indicated in the case, managed only one order. On November 1, 2004, Alexander Zhivitsa from the window of a moving car fired an automatic burst at boxer Andrey Grabovsky’s BMW, but all the bullets missed. On January 18, 2005, the killer tracked down Andrey Nekolov and shot him with a TT pistol. The businessman died on the spot. As stated in the case, since one of the victims managed to escape, businessman Bykov paid the killer five times less than promised – $ 10 thousand.
In the court debate, the state prosecution proposed to release Anatoly Bykov and Alexander Zhivitsa from punishment for the episode of attempted murder (Art. 33 and Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) of Vice-President of the Regional Boxing Federation Andrey Grabovsky due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. On the episode with the murder (part 2 of article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) of Andrei Nekolov, the prosecutor’s office requested 12 years in prison for Anatoly Bykov, and taking into account the verdict in the first case, which also dealt with contract killings, 18 years in a strict regime colony. Alexander Zhivitsa has already served his sentence for the murder of Andrey Nekolov.
At the beginning of his speech, Anatoly Bykov’s lawyer Alexei Prokhorov noted that during the trial, the defense did not have the opportunity to fully present evidence of the businessman’s innocence. According to the lawyer, the trial was conducted in violation of the principle of competition and equality of arms, since numerous petitions of the defense lawyers were rejected.
The defense believes that the attempt on the vice-president of the regional boxing federation Andrei Grabovsky was staged by him.
According to the lawyer, boxer Grabovsky could have staged an assassination scene in order to further avert suspicions of the murder of his friend, the former deputy head of the regional police department Sergei Nazarov, which he only hatched in plans. The ex-policeman was shot in November 2004 by a killer.
“So, staging an attempt on oneself is an attempt to send law enforcement agencies on the wrong track, an attempt to present the attempt on oneself and the murder of Nazarov as links in the same chain, an attempt to show that, they say, on November 1, 2004, they tried to kill me, and I miraculously remained alive, and on November 23, 2004, my friend Nazarov was killed, he, unfortunately, was less fortunate, ”the lawyer argues.
It should be noted that in December 2020 Andrei Grabovsky was sentenced to 13 years for organizing the murder of former policeman Sergei Nazarov. The defender asked the court to acquit Anatoly Bykov in the episode of the attempt on Andrei Grabovsky “due to the absence of a crime event” and refuse to satisfy the claim of the victim: the former boxer demands to recover 30 million rubles from Anatoly Bykov. compensation for moral damage.
After that, the lawyer moved on to the second episode of the case – the murder of businessman Andrei Nekolov. The defender believes that the version of the investigation is entirely based on the testimony of the killer Zhivitsa, who fully admitted his guilt.
“After analyzing all the evidence presented in the criminal case, comparing them with each other, we believe that Bykov’s involvement in the murder of Nekolov has not been proven. We believe that in general no one can be accused of crimes on the basis of the allegations of only one person, ”said Mr. Prokhorov, adding that the testimony of Alexander Zhivica contradicts the testimony of other witnesses.
For example, according to the lawyer, Alexander Zhivitsa claimed that when they walked with Anatoly Bykov around the businessman’s country residence and allegedly discussed the order to kill Andrei Nekolov, dogs barked loudly in the kennel. At the same time, a worker from the estate of the former head of KrAZ explained in court that he built the kennel with his own hands in 2010, that is, several years after these events.
“Bykov’s involvement in the murder of Nekolov was fabricated, and the evidence was adjusted to the circumstances necessary for the investigation,” the lawyer summed up.
The lawyer added that his client, who had never dealt with waste processing, had no motive to eliminate Andrey Nekolov, and the prosecutor’s office did not provide any evidence that businessman Bykov benefited from this crime. The defender asked the court to acquit his client in this episode in “due to non-involvement in the commission of a crime.”
On April 21, Anatoly Bykov and Alexander Zhivitsa will give their last word, after which the court will retire to the deliberation room to write the verdict.
