A new turn in the case of Olga Mirimskaya, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BKF Bank, founder of the Russian Product company. It was assumed that the Presnensky Court of Moscow on May 24 will start considering the case on the merits: the prosecutor will announce the indictment, and the defendants will express their attitude towards it. However, it did not come to this: the defense petitioned for the removal of all judges of the Presnensky Court of Moscow and sending him to the Moscow City Court to change the territorial jurisdiction.
The fact that the defense could file a motion on the impossibility of considering the case by the Presnensky Court of the capital could be expected. After all, two of the four episodes of the case, charged by the businesswoman, relate to an attempt to give bribes to the judges of the Presnensky Court of Moscow, where several years ago Mirimskaya had a lawsuit with her ex-husband, ex-top manager of Yukos Alexei Golubovich over the division of property.
At the beginning of the meeting, one of the five lawyers for the defendant, Alexander Chernov, said that the judges of the Presnensky Court were unlikely to be impartial in considering the case, and whatever decision was made, it would become a reason for appeal either by the defense or by the prosecution. Both will be able to reproach the judges for bias and appeal against the decisions taken in the case on formal grounds.
“Unidentified person”
Chernov said that the case itself was initiated on May 19, 2017, according to the completed corpus delicti – “giving a bribe” (part 5 of article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). It was about an unidentified official of the Presnensky Court of the capital, who allegedly received money from Mirimskaya (the banker herself categorically denies this – Business FM). However, this person was never identified, and the decision to dismiss the case against him was not made, the lawyer said.
“Even the judge who made the decision in the civil case (on the division of the property of Olga Mirimskaya and Alexei Golubovich) was simply not interrogated,” Chernov said. He added that the telegram channels that follow the fate of his client publish information that the judges of the Presnensky Court are allegedly interested in acquitting Mirimskaya. This, according to Chernov, can be regarded as pressure on the court in order to prevent an objective consideration of the case.
In order to prevent this from happening, and the parties could not reproach the court for bias, the lawyer asked to send the case to the Moscow City Court to change the territorial jurisdiction and transfer the case to any of the capital’s courts.
New Judge
This is not the first surprise that occurred at the May 24 meeting. Before the start of the trial, it turned out that the case of Olga Mirimskaya, which initially went to judge Alexandra Avdotyina, was unexpectedly transferred to judge Katerina Kirichenko.
The banker’s lawyers also challenged the latter, in particular, pointing out that the redistribution of cases between judges occurs randomly using an automated information system, while in this case this was not done. The judge herself explained during the hearing that she got the case “on the basis of the resolution of the chairman of the court.”
Olga Mirimskaya’s defense petition was supported by Ruslan Zakalyuzhny, the lawyer of the second defendant, former investigator Yury Nosov, who was with her. Unlike him, the prosecutor saw no reason to challenge the judge.
The latter, having stayed in the deliberation room for ten minutes, refused to recuse herself, noting that the defense did not indicate the facts of her interest in the outcome of the case. She also did not accept the challenge to all the judges of the Presnensky Court. As for sending the case to the Moscow City Court to change jurisdiction, the presiding judge could not make a decision on this issue due to the fact that the state prosecutor asked for time to agree on the position with “the person who approved the indictment, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation”, before voicing it .
Two figurants
Yury Nosov, a former Moscow region investigator, will appear before the court along with Olga Mirimskaya. He is charged with taking a bribe (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) from Mirimskaya.
Both were arrested on December 17, 2021. Mirimskaya is charged with giving a bribe (part 5 of article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) to Yuri Nosov with two cars worth 3.25 million rubles. The investigator once handled the case of the kidnapping of her newborn daughter. It, as previously stated by the investigation, was organized by the former cohabitant of Mirimskaya Nikolai Smirnov, co-owner of the Golden Crown payment system, who was put on the wanted list. Subsequently, in 2020, the case against Smirnov was closed, as the prosecutor’s office did not approve the indictment. The case was closed due to the absence of corpus delicti in Smirnov’s actions.
In addition, Mirimskaya is charged with three episodes of attempted bribery (part 3 of article 30, part 5 of article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in the amount of $ 1.75 million to the leadership of the Presnensky Court of Moscow and the 9th Arbitration Court of Appeal for bringing to its in favor of decisions in disputes over the division of property between her and her ex-husband, ex-top manager of Yukos Alexei Golubovich.
During the investigation, Mirimskaya did not admit her guilt in all episodes. She has repeatedly expressed the position that Smirnov and Golubovich are behind her case. Her last words are not commented on.
The process will continue on June 1st. Leaving the court, the defendants’ lawyers told Business FM that they had no doubts about the objectivity of the judges of the Presnensky Court in Moscow. “However, all formal reasons for the possible cancellation of any judicial acts should be excluded so that it is impossible to call them into question,” Yuriy Nosov’s lawyer Ruslan Zakalyuzhny told Business FM.
