Despite Darya Trepova’s admission of guilt in the terrorist attack, which killed military commander Vladlen Tatarsky, and her daily prayers for the health of about 40 victims, the Moscow City Court refused to change the accused’s preventive measure of detention in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center to house arrest. Due to the secrecy of the investigation, the trial was again held behind closed doors.
Daria Trepova participated in the meeting of the appellate instance via videoconference. After the court established her identity, Trepova said that she “madly regrets what happened and prays every day for the health of the victims.” But the judge did not let her finish, noting that she would be able to speak in detail during a further meeting. She had to speak behind closed doors, since the head of the investigation group of the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR, Viktor Kvasha, filed a petition to expel the public from the meeting room – during the proceedings, data constituting the secret of the investigation could be disclosed.
Lawyer Daniil Berman spoke out strongly against it. “When I entered this case, I immediately realized that it would be scandalous,” the lawyer said. “Therefore, I immediately deleted not only all social media profiles, but also promised not to give comments to journalists until the end of the process.”
But, the defender said, the investigation, through its journalists, gives the media a half-truth, which is worse than a lie. “In this, we switched places with the investigation,” lawyer Berman said, “changed because this investigation is now actively politicizing the case, and not the defense.”
According to the lawyer, there are no secrets in this case, and if there are any, then at that moment you can ask the journalists and the public to leave the hall. “I consider it necessary that the process should proceed in an open mode,” summed up the defender. But the presiding judge satisfied the demand of the prosecution, supported by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The journalists were returned to the hall twenty minutes later. While the judge was deliberating, they tried to ask Daria Trepova questions, but she did not answer any of them. One of the journalists suggested that during a break in the hall the connection with the pre-trial detention center was cut off, although it was clearly audible how the accused Trepova drummed her fingers on the table at which she was.
The presiding judge, as expected, upheld the decision of the Basmanny Court to place Daria Trepova in custody. Hearing this, the investigator and the lawyer left the room, refusing to comment.
As Kommersant has already reported, according to the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR, on April 2 in St. Petersburg, at a meeting with military commissar Vladlen Tatarsky, Daria Trepova handed him a figurine in which there was a bomb based on plastite. As a result of the explosion, the military commander was killed, and about forty more people were injured of varying degrees of severity. The girl was detained in the apartment of Dmitry Kasintsev, who himself was later placed under house arrest for failing to report the crime (Article 205.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Another person involved was a citizen of Ukraine, Yuriy Denisov, who handed the girl a bust with a bomb, and then flew to Turkey. He was put on the wanted list.
On April 4, the Basmanny Court arrested Daria Trepova until June 2. At the same time, she was charged with a terrorist attack and illegal trafficking in explosive devices (Articles 205 and 222.1 of the Criminal Code) committed as part of an organized group.
