The developer of “Buran” ordered son-in-law to the driver

As it became known to Kommersant, the Moscow Regional Court re-started considering the criminal case on the murder of Timur Zainiev, a former employee of Troika Dialog. According to investigators, he was ordered by his father-in-law, a former professor at the Moscow State Technical University named after Bauman, one of the developers of the Buran reusable spacecraft, Alexander Kibalchenko, and former policeman-driver Roman Osipov fulfilled the order.

The Moscow Regional Court held preliminary hearings on the case, at which a petition was filed and granted for its consideration with the participation of a jury. Their selection is scheduled for the coming days. In this case, the case itself is being re-examined. In November last year, the Moscow Regional Court at the stage of preliminary hearings returned the materials to the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office, considering that the roles of the five accused were not clearly indicated in the indictment, and the selfish motive in the kidnapping of Timur Zainiev and the massacre of him remained undescribed.

The case file said only that Alexander Kibalchenko handed over $50,000 to Roman Osipov to pay “all the perpetrators of the crime,” but the investigation did not establish how much each of the defendants received.

The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office did not agree with the claims and challenged the refusal decision of the Moscow Regional Court in the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction. They recognized the arguments of the supervision as fair and recommended that the Moscow Regional Court begin the process on the merits in a different judicial composition.

Recall that 43-year-old programmer Timur Zainiev was killed on March 4, 2021. The investigation considers the murder of his former father-in-law, a professor who previously worked at the Moscow State Technical University named after Bauman, and one of the developers of the Buran reusable spacecraft, Alexander Kibalchenko, to be the customer. According to investigators, Mr. Kibalchenko believed that after his daughter’s divorce from Mr. Zainiev, the courts unfairly divided the joint property of the former spouses and restricted the mother’s right to take her children abroad. In addition, as the professor himself later claimed, the former son-in-law allegedly threatened him with reprisal.

According to the materials of the case, the scientist decided to get rid of his former son-in-law and turned for help to the former policeman-driver Roman Osipov, who introduced himself to everyone as an FSB colonel.

The imaginary security officer, according to the investigation, agreed to fulfill the order for $50,000, and for support he attracted his daughter’s acquaintances Vladimir Filimonchuk, Maxim Enbekov and Vladislav Melnikov, who were then studying at various universities, to the case.

On March 4, according to the prosecution, four intruders, led by Roman Osipov, attacked Timur Zainiev near the building of the Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow, where another claim for the division of property was being considered, immobilized the programmer with a stun gun, dragged him into a car and brought him to the garage of one of the attackers, located in the Moscow region. Krasnogorsk. There, according to the investigation, Roman Osipov strangled the handcuffed Mr. Zainiev, and Vladimir Filimonchuk helped him, holding the victim by the legs.

The alleged killers and kidnappers were identified from the video cameras installed on the court building, and already on March 6, all participants in the attack were detained. They were accused of kidnapping (Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and Vladimir Filimonchuk and Roman Osipov were also accused of murder (Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The latter soon confessed, saying that Alexander Kibalchenko was the customer of the crime, and the professor became accused of organizing the murder (part 2 of article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In November 2022, when the materials of this case first arrived at the Moscow Regional Court, the process stalled even before the parties began to select the jury.

The state prosecutor and the lawyer of the parents of the deceased programmer, Anton Zharov, said they consider the indictment “quite clear and in line with the requirements of the law.” Representatives of the alleged customer and perpetrator of the murder, on the contrary, saw gross errors in the materials and petitioned the court to return the case to the prosecutor to eliminate them. At the same time, the defenders of the three likely accomplices of the killer stated that the criminal cases of their clients, accused only of kidnapping Timur Zainiev, should generally be singled out and considered without the participation of a jury. After listening to the opinions of the participants, the judge then nevertheless returned the case to the prosecutor. According to lawyer Anton Zharov, the presiding judge thus decided to “insure” the verdict and sentence against possible claims related to procedural violations.