In the Dorogomilovsky court of the capital, the parties debated the case of a number of former high-ranking officials of the Federal Customs Service (FCS). They are accused of abuse of power: according to investigators, the customs officers contributed to the exemption from liability of citizens who tried to illegally smuggle large amounts of foreign currency across the border. The representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office proposed to sentence the ex-head of the department of customs investigations and inquiry of the Federal Customs Service, Lieutenant-General Alexander Kizlyk, to ten years in prison, the deputy head of the department, Alexei Serebro, to seven years, the deputy heads of the Vnukovo and Domodedovo customs and the senior interrogator of the latter, to terms of five to seven years. None of the defendants pleads guilty, the lawyers asked the court to fully acquit the defendants due to the absence of the actual event of the crime.
Speaking at the Dorogomilovsky Court in the debate on the criminal case of the former head of the customs investigation and inquiry department of the FCS, Lieutenant General Alexander Kizlyk, his deputy Alexei Serebro, deputy heads of the Vnukovo and Domodedovo customs Konstantin Mishin and Yuri Cherkashin, as well as the senior investigator of the Domodedovo customs Andrey Shurygin, representative The Prosecutor General’s Office stated that, in his opinion, the guilt of the defendants in the abuse of official powers with the infliction of grave consequences (part 3 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) was fully confirmed by the evidence collected by the investigation and in court.
Therefore, summarized the state prosecutor, General Kizlyk, who is charged with two criminal episodes, for each of them deserves a sentence of seven years in prison, and in general, by partial addition of terms, ten years in a penal colony. Mr. Silver, who was accused of one episode, the prosecutor proposed to sentence to seven years. The same amount was requested by the public prosecutor for the former deputy head of the Vnukovo Customs Konstantin Mishin. The representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office asked the ex-deputy head of the Domodedovo Customs Yury Cherkashin to appoint six years in prison, and Andrey Shurygin, the senior investigator of the Domodedovo Customs, five years.
In turn, the lawyers of the defendants again tried to prove to the court during the debate that there was no actual event of the crime, and that the criminal case had been opened illegally. The defense asked the accused to be acquitted. The defendants themselves in the last word fully agreed with their lawyers.
Recall that the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case on abuse of power, which entailed grave consequences, on December 22, 2019. The next day Alexander Kizlyk and his deputy Alexei Serebro were detained and charged.
According to the investigators, the defendants in the criminal case “contributed to the release from criminal liability, as well as a significant reduction in the administrative fine to persons who illegally moved foreign currency on a large scale, that is, who smuggled personal funds.”
There are two episodes in the criminal case. The first of them concerns businessman Yuri Stepanov, who in April 2019 tried to illegally smuggle more than €316,000 into Montenegro through the Vnukovo customs to purchase real estate.
Subsequently, it was also terminated, after Mr. Stepanov contributed to the budget part of the money that he tried to take out. However, in the end, all his funds were returned to the businessman thanks, according to the investigation, to the help of high-ranking customs officers. The second episode concerns the refusal to initiate proceedings against the wife of the Russian Ambassador to Kenya, Dmitry Maksimychev, who did not declare more than $50,000 when importing into Russia through Domodedovo customs.
In court, the defense of the defendants and they themselves put forward a different version. In particular, General Kizlyk’s lawyers argued that it was not he who made the decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case against businessman Stepanov, but the police investigation, and the decision to terminate the administrative case was approved by the transport prosecutor, who did not see violations of the law. Criminal proceedings against the businessman were started and stopped several times, as a result, the Khoroshevsky Court of Moscow limited itself to fined him 50 thousand rubles, seeing no grounds for his criminal prosecution.
As for the story with the diplomat’s wife, General Kizlyk both during the investigation and in court explained that during the proceedings it turned out that the woman, upon arrival in Russia, “was in a painful condition, she was previously used to crossing the border with her husband without inspection and out of habit also passed.” According to him, the general did not receive any instructions from anyone on the adoption of illegal decisions regarding the wife of a diplomat. The court, where the Domodedovo police filed a petition to refuse to initiate proceedings against the woman, noted the defense of Mr. Kizlyk, made the appropriate decision. Nevertheless, the Investigative Committee saw abuse in the actions of the customs officer.
It was not possible to get comments on the progress of the process from the representatives of the defense, the lawyer of Aleksey Serebro, Marat Fayzullin, suggested “wait for March 1, when the verdict will be announced.”
Alexander Kizlyk donated a collection of gold watches to the Motherland
It should be noted that in February 2021, the Meshchansky District Court satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and turned the property of Lieutenant General Alexander Kizlyk and his wife in favor of the state. We are talking about cash, valuables and real estate for a total amount of 153.4 million rubles. The suit for the confiscation of the general’s assets was sent by the Prosecutor General’s Office in November 2020. The supervisory authority found that with the total income of the spouses in the period from 2001 to 2019 in the amount of 34.7 million rubles. they acquired and received property worth many times more.