A court in Moscow has refused to stop criminal prosecution of former rector of Kazan State Federal University Ilshat Gafurov, who is accused of inciting the murder of a crime boss in 1999. The defense, filing a petition, indicated that in the case of Ilshat Gafurov there were all grounds for this, including the decision of the prosecutor, which had not been canceled in accordance with the requirements of the law, who did not find corpus delicti in his actions.
At the hearings in the Savelovsky District Court of the capital, Ilshat Gafurov’s lawyer Alexander Naryshkin filed a motion to terminate the criminal prosecution of his client due to the absence in his actions of a crime under Art. 105 (murder) of the Criminal Code.
The defense lawyer relied on the decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case against Ilshat Gafurov, which was issued by the prosecutor back in 2002.
It is important to note that the initiation of a criminal case was denied for the same reasons that the Main Investigation Department (GSU) of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (TFR) now incriminates the ex-rector, namely, incitement to the murder of the leader of the Aidar organized crime group Aidar Israfilov.
The leader of the organized crime group was shot dead in 1999 in Moscow. For this and other crimes in Tatarstan, the leaders of the organized crime community (OPS) from the city of Naberezhnye Chelny “29th complex” were convicted. Subsequently, they testified about the involvement in the liquidation of Aidar Israfilov Ilshat Gafurov, with whom he allegedly had a conflict. The scientist categorically denies his involvement in the murder.
Lawyer Alexander Naryshkin stressed that the prosecutor’s decision remained unrepealed. To cancel it according to the law, as well as taking into account the past years, the investigation or supervision had to go to court. Based on the materials of the investigation itself, it turned out that it was not the court that canceled the prosecutor’s decision, but the first deputy head of the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR, Yuri Tyutyunnik.
The complaint of the defense to the Prosecutor General’s Office, which was forwarded to the TFR from there, was rejected by the head of the central office Denis Kolesnikov, pointing out the validity of the decision of his deputy, since the court verdicts in the OPS case “established the facts of the participation of unknown persons in the preparations for the murder and murder of Israfilov.” However, Ilshat Gafurov cannot be attributed to unidentified persons, the defense noted, since during the preliminary investigation he was interrogated twice by the investigation as a witness, and only then did the decision of the prosecutor rehabilitate him.
The judge considering the criminal case, after consulting with herself, rejected the defense’s petition, considering that there were no grounds for satisfying it. The case will now be considered on its merits. The jury, the defense, and the defendant himself, a well-known and honored Tatar scientist, did not ask for the participation in the trial.
