The Court of Appeal considered justified the sentence handed down in the case of occupying the highest position in the criminal hierarchy to a native of Georgia, Sumbat Abasov.
Previously, he received nine years in a strict regime colony. The verdict was based, among other things, on the testimony of the convict himself, who confessed to trying to influence young prisoners in order to save them from stupid acts, such as, for example, setting fire to a colony. The defense tried to challenge the very existence of a strict criminal hierarchy in Russia, but the court decided that this was an established fact.
The First Court of Appeal did not satisfy the complaint of the defenders of 55-year-old native of Georgia Sumbat Abasov, whom the Belgorod Regional Court had previously sent to a strict regime colony for nine years on the case of occupying the highest position in the criminal hierarchy (Article 210.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Thus, the decision of the court of first instance entered into force.
Defenders of Sumbat Abasov Mikhail Bazhinov and Maxim Baev appealed to the appellate court against the decision of the Belgorod Regional Court.
They asked to cancel the verdict due to the absence in the materials of the criminal case of specific examples confirming the execution by the convict of the organizational functions of an authoritative representative of the criminal world.
In addition, the defense pointed out that the investigation did not specify at what time, in what place and in what way the convict committed the crime he was charged with. In his complaint, lawyer Baev also noted that he considers the conclusion of the court of first instance that there is a criminal law environment with a strict criminal hierarchy in Russia unfounded. The defense in court argued that the principal did not take specific actions in order to be perceived as a thief in law.
The Court of Appeal, however, considered the arguments of the defense unfounded. As for the criminal-criminal environment with a strict hierarchy, the court considered its existence as an established fact.
The verdict, we note, was based on the fact that Sumbat Abasov, during his arrest in the summer of 2020, himself admitted that he had the highest status in the criminal world.
After an unsuccessful attempt to cross the border with Ukraine outside the checkpoint in the Grayvoronsky district of the Belgorod region, he introduced himself to law enforcement officers as a “thief” and said that he was crowned at the age of 23 in Tbilisi. At the same time, during interrogations during the preliminary investigation, the thief in law stated that in places of deprivation of liberty, thanks to his authority, he tried to protect the rest of the prisoners from committing wrong and stupid, from his point of view, actions. And once, the thief in law told the investigators, he warned young prisoners against “setting the zone on fire”. The court also pointed out that Abasov’s lifestyle, which existed on the money of people involved in business and had no citizenship, was also correlated with the concept of “thief in law”.
The high criminal status of Sumbat Abasov was confirmed in court by employees of the FSB and the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, as well as convicts and defendants held with him.
According to operatives, Abasov was registered with the internal affairs bodies as a crime boss. During a search at his place of residence, notebooks with the phones of the leaders of the criminal world and a laptop with photographs were found, indicating Abasov’s acquaintance with other “authorities”. It should be noted that his common-law wife claimed that all the materials seized in the framework of the criminal case belong to her and her son, but the court was skeptical about the testimony.
One of the unnamed witnesses stated that he was serving a sentence with the convict in places of deprivation of liberty. He confirmed that Abasov has extensive connections and authority among the “persons of a criminal orientation” in Russia, Ukraine and Georgia, and many times took part in the so-called coronations (granting status) of other thieves in law. The witness noted that Sumbat had a strong influence on the criminal situation in the Belgorod region, and also decided to take control of various areas of criminal activity, including the smuggling of goods, weapons and drugs across the border with Ukraine. He stated that “thieves” are waiting for Abasov in places of deprivation of liberty to resolve various issues that are within the competence of only people authoritative in the criminal world. In addition, the criminals expect that Abasov will establish a so-called back door in the colony, that is, he will contribute to the creation of a situation where order in the institution is ensured not by the administration, but by the convicts themselves.
The court of appeal also emphasized that Abasov did not renounce his criminal status after the appearance in 2019 in the Criminal Code of an article on occupying a higher position in the criminal hierarchy and was afraid of being detained for this.
The prisoners also continued to perceive him as a thief in law. For example, when checking the transmissions in the local pre-trial detention center, a note was found on the arrest of the “thief” Abasov, addressed to an unnamed leader of the criminal-criminal environment of the Belgorod region, who is in the pre-trial detention center.
Mikhail Bazhinov, the defender of the convict, told Kommersant that the verdict would now be appealed on cassation.
