The case of the attempt on the life of the former general director of the Merlion Group of Companies Vyacheslav Simonenko, which had previously attracted the attention of deputies and senators, received a new turn. Now none of the accused is restricted in their movements.
Representatives of the victim believe that we are talking about a deliberate collapse of the criminal case, and the head of the Merlion security service can now increase pressure on witnesses.
The investigation softened the measure of restraint for the head of the security service of the Merlion Group of Companies, Boris Levin. “He has been under house arrest since August 2021, before that he was kept in a pre-trial detention center. Just the other day, the investigator of the Central Office of the Investigative Committee Maiboroda released him on his own recognizance,” lawyer Kirill Kachur, a representative of the victim Vyacheslav Simonenko, told Versiya.
The injured party considers Levin one of the main organizers of the assassination attempt on Symonenko and his family members. “We are just in shock! It is the height of impudence to release from house arrest a person who has direct testimony from a militant, this does not correspond to any investigative and judicial practice for especially serious crimes,” Kirill Kachur added.
According to the lawyer, the investigator could not make such a decision without the consent of the head of the investigative body. “In this case, the official who oversees the investigation of the Central Office of the Investigative Committee is Kaburneev Eduard Valerievich. Accordingly, he decided to release Levin on bail,” suggests Mr. Kachur. He believes that now the head of the security service of the Merlion Group of Companies is not limited in any way in his rights to move. “Levin can fly away, leave, continue to engage in criminal activities, put pressure on witnesses, on the investigation, which, in fact, is happening,” Vyacheslav Symonenko’s representative added.
Boris Levin was the last of the defendants in the attempted murder case to remain under house arrest. During 2021, Oleg Karchev, Alexey Abramov and Vladislav Mangutov, co-owners of the Merlion Group of Companies, who were initially in the pre-trial detention center, were left without any measure of restraint, despite the fact that they, apparently, continue to be accused in the case.
“I repeat: we are in shock, the victim receives threats, the witnesses receive threats. Even after all the public outcry, after the speech in the Federation Council, the investigation still continues its line of destroying the case so that the accused do not suffer a well-deserved criminal punishment, ”added Kirill Kachur.
Earlier, as Versiya reported, the case of the attempt on the family of Vyacheslav Symonenko attracted the attention of deputies and senators. The former CEO of the Merlion Group of Companies was invited to the Federation Council for an expert session on the upcoming amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provide for tougher punishment for security forces for torture.
As part of the round table, Senator Elena Afanasyeva noted that the amendments should not only protect Russian citizens from physical pressure and humiliating treatment in colonies and pre-trial detention centers. It is important to understand that the security forces use such measures for the specific purpose of forcing a person to give the testimony they need. This, according to the representatives of Vyacheslav Simonenko, is exactly what is happening with the investigation of the criminal case of the attempt on his family – the witnesses turn into defendants in other criminal cases and refuse their testimony against the owners of the Merlion Group of Companies.
Following the results of the expert session, Elena Afanasyeva and State Duma deputy Mikhail Delyagin announced that they intended to send appeals to the chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, with a request to take the investigation into the attempt on Simonenko under personal control.
“We clearly see that justice is turning into a farce. And since people do not have access to justice, then, accordingly, this is a question about the existence of Russian statehood. There is a feeling that an abnormal state is waging war against normal representatives of society, ”said Mikhail Delyagin.
Recall that the attempt on the family of the former general director of the Merlion Group of Companies took place in 2015. At night, two masked men crept up to his house in Krasnogorsk near Moscow and threw Molotov cocktails at the building. By a lucky chance, Vyacheslav Simonenko, his wife and children were in a different place that night – no one was hurt. Later, one of the participants in the attack issued a confession, revealing the details of the preparation for the crime and pointing to the customers. Symonenko spoke about the reasons why former employers decided to get rid of him in an interview with Versiya in June 2021.
Read about inconsistencies in the investigation of a criminal case in our material “There was a crime, but there is no trial.”
Kirill Kachur believes that the release of Boris Levin from house arrest is an unprecedented story in terms of respecting the constitutional rights of the victim. “There are no analogues in modern Russia, I think. In this case, as I said, this was agreed with the top leadership of the Investigative Committee and it is unlikely that investigator Mayboroda and other officials will be held accountable,” said Vyacheslav Symonenko’s representative. “Version” will continue to monitor the development of this story.
Shota Gorgadze, lawyer, member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation:
“In my practice, there were several situations when they completely unreasonably changed the measure of restraint to a written undertaking not to leave, in fact, untying the hands of potentially dangerous people. My personal appeals to the leadership of the Investigative Committee and the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation helped. Appeals helped, but I would still like to live in a state of law, when the protection of the victim is not forced to achieve this, and the state a priori protects the victim from criminal encroachments.
