Lieutenant-General of Justice Mikhail Muzraev must spend 20 years in a strict regime colony by the verdict of the Southern District Military Court (YuOVS). He and businessman Vladimir Zubkov, who received 14 years in prison, were found guilty by the court of organizing an assassination attempt on the governor of the Volgograd region Andrei Bocharov in November 2016, which was regarded by the FSB as a terrorist act. According to the prosecution, in this way the chief investigator of the region, who created the “shadow structure of power”, wanted to influence the official who pursued an independent policy. Deprived of his rank and awards, Mikhail Muzraev pleaded not guilty to this and is going to appeal the verdict in the military court of appeal.
The announcement of the verdict in the high-profile criminal case of the ex-head of the department of the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) for the Volgograd Region and the still acting assistant to the chairman of the committee for special assignments, Lieutenant General of Justice Mikhail Muzraev and businessman Vladimir Zubkov took only 11 minutes. As expected, he read out only a short resolutive part, announcing that the court would find the defendants guilty of committing a terrorist attack (Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), for which Mikhail Muzraev was sentenced to 17 years in prison in a strict regime colony, and his accomplice – 14 years.
At the same time, Mikhail Muzraev was deprived of the rank of lieutenant general of justice and awards – medals of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II and I degrees, and Zhukov’s medal. In addition, the court found the former general guilty of abuse of office (Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and illegal possession of ammunition (Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). For malfeasance, the former general already received three years in prison, and for the second – two years.
The court determined the final punishment for Mikhail Muzraev at 20 years in a strict regime colony.
All these formulations fit into just a few phrases, and the rest of the time the judge read out a long list of material evidence, including money seized from the defendants during searches, collectible watches, jewelry and weapons. Among the latter, by the way, in addition to the hunting one, there was a saber and a saber from the Volgograd department of the Russian Guard with the corresponding engravings. The court offered to hand over almost all the valuables to the relatives of the defendants, ruling to destroy the fragments of the burnt fence of the governor’s mansion, parts of a plastic bucket and other material evidence from the crime scene as “of no value”.
After that, Judge Generalov clarified whether the sentence was clear to the convicts, explaining that it could be appealed within the time period established by law, and the motivational part would be served within five days. “It will be interesting to read what they wrote there,” Mikhail Muzraev immediately responded with irony. Outwardly, he was completely calm, although, as one of his lawyers, Andrey Grokhotov, admitted to Kommersant, such a harsh decision of the court, which satisfied all the requests of the prosecutor’s office for punishment voiced in the debate of the parties, was a “psychological blow” for his client.
“An absolutely joyless verdict, although we were ready for any outcome,” the defender said.
However, according to him, Mikhail Muzraev did not lose heart, but immediately began to discuss “technical issues” with lawyers – the immediate filing of an application for the provision of court records to them, for which five days are given, as well as the filing of a brief appeal.
As Mr. Grohotov clarified, the complaint itself will be filed within the 15 days allotted for this by law from the date of receipt of the full text of the verdict and its detailed analysis. However, it will take a lot of time for the defense side to study the minutes of the meetings for all two years that the process was in progress, and submit their comments on them.
The complaint itself will be sent to the military court of appeal, located in the Moscow region in the closed military town of Vlasikha, next to the headquarters of the strategic missile forces. However, according to lawyers’ estimates, at least several months will pass before its consideration, but for now, Mikhail Muzraev will most likely remain in Rostov-on-Don in pre-trial detention center No. 4 of the central subordination of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
The convict has already stated that he wants to participate in the meeting of the appellate court in person, and not via video conference. According to representatives of the defense, they intend to call the victims there, whom the court of first instance did not invite for interrogation. They recalled that the governor of the Volgograd region Andrey Bocharov himself, his wife, as well as a businesswoman, the owner of a cottage in the elite village of Latoshynka, where the official lived and which they tried to set on fire in the fall of 2016, were recognized as such in the case of the terrorist attack, allegedly at the direction of the head of the local department of the TFR.
In another episode about the abuse of power, there is no injured party at all, as in the case with the storage of ammunition. “We will also ask the court of appeal to attach the evidence that the court previously rejected, we have a lot to talk about,” Andrey Grokhotov summed up.
Recall that an attempt to set fire to the house of Governor Andrei Bocharov was made in November 2016. However, it turned out to be unsuccessful – only a few boards on the fence were burned, and no one initially even considered it a terrorist attack. The situation changed dramatically a few years later, when Mr. Bocharov himself wrote the corresponding statement, and the testimony was given by the direct perpetrators of the unsuccessful assassination attempt on the official.
According to the FSB, the organizer of the crime was precisely Mikhail Muzraev, who for many years was first a member of the leadership of the prosecutor’s office of the Volgograd region, the local department of the TFR, and later rose to the position of assistant to the chairman of the TFR for special assignments.
By the way, he remains such in the rank of an acting employee of the investigative department to this day, since the verdict, which can serve as a basis for dismissal, has not entered into force.
According to the prosecution, General Muzraev created a “shadow structure of power” in the region, and the governor, who pursued an independent policy, interfered with him. Therefore, the head of the TFR department decided to “influence him” with the help of an assassination attempt.
Muzraev himself categorically denied the accusations, insisting that he had rather formal relations with Mr. Bocharov’s predecessors, but with him they were more trusting, and he supported the governor’s policy in everything. The general called the testimonies against himself far-fetched, since they were given by persons who had previously been prosecuted by him and already convicted.
Mikhail Muzraev also called the assumptions about an official crime – “protection” by him of a person involved in one of the criminal cases far-fetched, and called the cartridges found in his house during a search, planted.