ex-chairman city court may be related to murder
Investigators of the central apparatus of the Investigative Committee have come close to solving a crime 23 years ago. They went on the trail of the alleged perpetrator who killed 18-year-old Yulia Radaev. They, according to one version, may be the former chairman of the Leninogorsk City Court of Tatarstan, Eric Shaidullin, said a law enforcement source for Izvestia. While he is a witness in the case, he has not been charged. The girl disappeared in August 2000 and is still on the wanted list. Izvestia investigated the details of the case.
Passed with giblets
The former chairman of the Leninogorsk Court of Tatarstan, Eric Shaydullin, may be brought to trial for murder, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told Izvestia. It may be connected with the murder of 18-year-old resident of Leninogorsk Yulia Radaeva, who disappeared 23 years ago. These suspicions have not yet been formalized – Shaydullin is involved in the case as a witness, the source said.
According to the source, testimony against Shaydullin was given by his former accomplice and distant relative, repeatedly convicted Ravil Davletshin. The case is complicated by the status of the suspect – the retired judge is still a special subject.
During his last term for another murder, Davletshin told investigators how the then acting judge allegedly strangled one of the girls with whom he, in the company of his acquaintances, spent time in the country.
According to Davletshin, on August 8, 2000, Shaydullin instructed him and his personal driver to find the girls and invite them to barbecues. The girls were found and put into the car. During the trip, one of them tried to escape several times, but they caught up with her and put her back.
According to the source, this scene was seen by the staff of the PPP, they tried to intervene in the situation. But the drunken judge allegedly threatened them with high connections, and the policemen retreated. According to investigators, later they saw an orientation for Yulia Radaeva and told their management that they had seen the girl and knew who she was with that day in the car. But their words were not given a go, the interlocutor of the editorial office said.
He also said that investigators assume, based on Davletshin’s testimony, that the girls were raped at the dacha, after which one of them stated that she would go to the police.
The judge might not like these words. In a state of intoxication, he could think about eliminating the problem that had arisen and, possibly, strangled the girl, the source said.
After that, according to investigators, Shaydullin could instruct his drinking companions to get rid of the body. The victim was buried in a forest – a few meters from the dacha. The second girl was greatly frightened, given 50,000 rubles as compensation and released, the interlocutor of the publication said.
“It’s like saying goodbye”
18-year-old Yulia Radaeva went missing on August 18, 2000. In the evening, she left the house for a walk with a friend and never returned.
“Before leaving, she hugged me, although she hadn’t done it before. It was as if she said goodbye, – Yulia’s mother Tatyana Radaeva told Izvestia.
According to her, Julia was a very homely girl. By the time of her disappearance, she had completed nine grades, gone to college to become a pastry chef, and was about to look for a job.
She always slept at home and could not leave without warning. We had a good relationship, she said.
Tatyana Radaeva said that on the third day after the disappearance of her daughter, she wrote a statement to the police, Yulia was put on the wanted list.
The murder case was opened only seven years later, but due to lack of evidence, it was suspended several times.
But in 2021, the convict of the Saratov OTB-1 Ravil Davletshin opened up and, for reasons known only to the investigation, spoke about Yulia, the source noted. He not only said who killed her, but also named the place of burial of the victim. It turned out to be a plot next to the dacha of the driver of the ex-judge Shaidullin.
“I hoped I could bury her”
In a large, darkened photo of a girl with long dark hair and the appearance of an actress. This photo has been hanging on the booth of the Leninogorsk police department for many years. Anyone with information about her is asked to report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
According to Yulia’s mother, over the past couple of years, the investigation has done tremendous work.
– In 2021, I was invited to the UK and familiarized with the case, with the testimony of Davletshin and the staff of the teaching staff. They said about the alleged burial place of Yulia, I hoped that I could bury her, ”Tatiana said.
After receiving testimony from Davletshin, the investigators asked the local prosecutor’s office for permission to dig, but received it only a few months later. A group of gerontologists and criminologists was called to the dacha. Having gone to the place, they reported that the earth in the indicated area had been dug up quite recently – the soil was fresh.
But the digging continued and found a bone fragment and hair. The case was transferred to the Central Investigative Committee. However, the investigation has not yet been able to establish the origin of the finds. According to Tatyana Radaeva, on the eve of the disappearance, the girl bleached her hair. According to the source of Izvestia, this killed traces of DNA in them. As for the bone fragment, it follows from the conclusion that it most likely belongs to a person, the source said.
According to the interlocutor of Izvestia, the investigation has reason to believe that in 2021, when the case that had hung for 20 years received a new impetus, Yulia’s remains were dug up and reburied.
Ravil Davletshin himself, in the time that has passed since the confession, managed to free himself and change his testimony. In a conversation with an Izvestia correspondent, he said that he spoke about Yulia under pressure.
Repeatedly convicted Davletshin received his last term – only five years in prison – in 2018 for the brutal murder of a girl. The verdict was handed down by Judge Eric Shaidullin, follows from the case file, which Izvestia got acquainted with.
Power of Proof
The impetus for solving old crimes is often a sudden statement by a witness, said criminologist and former employee of the organized crime authorities Mikhail Ignatov. But the task of the investigators is to collect all the objective evidence. The collected evidence is “tried on” to the suspect: cigarette butts, biomaterial, fingerprints. And if there’s a match, they’re charged, he said.
“But the evidence must be weighty, and the arguments must be irrefutable,” the forensic scientist emphasized.
Doctor of Law, retired senior adviser of justice, criminologist Lev Bertovsky, in an interview with Izvestia, also noted that words alone are not enough to accuse someone of murder, especially when the victim’s body has not been found.
– There are cases when a case without the presence of a corpse is brought to court, but they are extremely rare. And in such cases there is always a large base of circumstantial evidence, the expert said.
He pointed out that even if charged, the person involved can avoid punishment, since the statute of limitations for especially serious cases is 15 years. However, by law, the court has the right not to apply this provision. In cases of murder, the court, as a rule, does not allow criminals to escape the law and pronounces a sentence, lawyer Igor Bushmanov said.
And yet, in court, a case with a lack of evidence can fall apart: the accused can be acquitted by the jury, reminded Lev Bertovsky. This happened, for example, with the famous thief in law Yaponchik, who killed two people on Petrovka in 1992. In 2005, he convinced the jury of his innocence and was released.
Elena Balayan, Natalia Bykadorova