Source The case of the attack on Oleg Mukhin went to court. The Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg received a criminal case against three people who attacked city defender Oleg Mukhin, who prevented the demolition of Saltykova's house. The investigation of the criminal case lasted six months, it was personally controlled by the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin. Defendants can face up to five years in prison. Experts, however, do not rule out that the court may make the sentence conditional.
A criminal case against three men who attacked Oleg Mukhin, a city defender and director of the Golodai Cultural and Historical Heritage Preservation Foundation, was filed with the Oktyabrsky Court of St. Petersburg. Nikolai Markov, Valery Patsuk and Denis Proshkin, employees of Mandarin Production and Commercial Company LLC, which dismantled the facility, will be in the dock. They beat Mr. Mukhin, after which they pushed the victim into the premises of the hall, where they forced him to write a receipt on the absence of claims, follows from the information of the Investigative Committee. On the day of the attack, they participated in the demolition of a cultural heritage site – Saltykova's house, located at Bolshaya Morskaya Street, 51. Markov is charged under Art. 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (beatings, punishment – up to two years in prison), Patsuk and Proshkin – under Art. 115 part 2 p. “a” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (intentional infliction of minor bodily harm out of hooligan motives, up to two years in prison). All three are also charged under Art. 127 part 2 p. “a” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal deprivation of liberty by a group of persons by prior agreement, is punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of three to five years).
The incident resulting in a criminal case occurred on August 16, 2022. Activists and city defenders came to the picket against the demolition of the building built in 1845. Among the protesters was Oleg Mukhin, who is involved in the preservation of architectural monuments of the city and prevents illegal construction work. The city defender tried to film the work of construction equipment, but was attacked by the defendants, who first beat him, and then illegally kept him in one of the premises on the territory of the mansion. As a result of the beatings, the city defender suffered a closed craniocerebral injury, concussion, multiple bruises and facial bruising.
Oleg Mukhin told Kommersant-SPb that none of the defendants subsequently tried to contact him, apologize or try to peacefully resolve the conflict. Mukhin also clarified that the fault lies not only with the accused, but also with the developer (the copyright holder of the site is Severnaya Zemlya Kompaniya LLC.—Kommersant-SPb).
“The beating and detention were spontaneous the decision of those who are accused. According to my feelings. But these people, of course, sincerely tried to protect the interests of the developer. Therefore, globally, this is the fault of the developer,” Mr. Mukhin explained.
The case was investigated by the central office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the course of the investigation was personally controlled by the chairman of the ICR, Alexander Bastrykin.
According to the candidate of historical sciences and deputy chairman of the society for the protection of monuments “Old Petersburg” Alexander Kononov, this story should impress those who are prone to such illegal actions. “To say that this story has become a kind of trigger for the close attention of the TFR is also impossible. Because even before the incident, the Investigative Committee made quite a lot of efforts on several objects in St. Petersburg. But this story (the attack on Oleg Mukhin. – Kommersant-SPb) is really blatant. In this regard, it really could serve as a kind of catalyst,” says Mr. Kononov.
Daria Titkova, lawyer and head of the dispute resolution practice at SSP-Consult, explained that when assessing the sentencing for crimes committed against Oleg Mukhin, it should be noted that beatings (Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and causing minor bodily harm committed from hooligan motives (clause “a” part 2 of article 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), belong to the category of crimes of minor gravity, with a maximum term of imprisonment of up to two years. Illegal deprivation of liberty committed by a group of persons by prior agreement (paragraph “a” part 2 of article 127 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) is a crime of medium gravity, the maximum punishment does not exceed five years in prison, the lawyer specified.
“In this case, the court will take into account mitigating and aggravating circumstances. There must be strong grounds and aggravating circumstances for imposing a maximum sentence of five years. With the existing set of crimes, we believe that the court may impose a sentence of imprisonment, but if there are extenuating circumstances, the court may conclude that it is possible to correct the convicts without actually serving the sentence, and then the sentence imposed will be considered suspended on the basis of Art. 73 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” Ms. Titkova explained.
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