The Second Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction refused to satisfy the petition of the chairman of the Moscow City Court Mikhail Ptitsyn to transfer the criminal case against the ex-judge of the Moscow Arbitration Court Elena Kondrat to another region, lawyer Maxim Pashkov told Vedomosti. The defense side insisted on the consideration of the case in the Moscow City Court.
Ptitsyn requested that the case be transferred to another region in order to ensure an impartial trial, since Kondrat, due to her position, had contacts with judges of the Moscow City Court and could influence the outcome of the trial. To this, during the court session, the representative of the prosecutor’s office replied that “we cannot question the impartiality of the entire judicial community in Moscow.”
Pashkov, in an interview with Vedomosti, also said that his client does not admit guilt and considers himself a victim of a provocation. “Kondrat states that neither she, nor the investigator, nor the members of the HQCC have seen the ruling of the Supreme Court on the permission to carry out operational-search measures against her,” the lawyer added.
The criminal case of bribery against the ex-judge of the Moscow Arbitration Court was received by the Moscow City Court on May 24. Prior to that, it was considered in the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow. On May 25, the head of the Moscow City Court, to which this case was determined, sent a petition to the Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction to change the territorial jurisdiction of the trial. Up to this point, Ptitsyn has not yet had to participate in the processes in the role of the presiding judge since his appointment in 2020.
The prosecutor’s office approved the charge in the final version: Kondrat is charged with mediation in bribery (part 4 of article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The former judge faces up to 12 years in prison.
According to investigators, in the fall of 2020, Kondrat offered her colleague in the Arbitration Court Elena Makhalkina, who had previously been her assistant, to make the “necessary” decision for a fee. Kondrat, according to the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR), said that she was approached by people who were ready to pay $ 50,000 for a decision not to bring a number of persons to subsidiary liability in the bankruptcy case considered by Makhalkina.
It is, law enforcement officers specified, about bringing to responsibility the management of the construction company “Transport Construction Supply Department” and persons associated with it. Makhalkina responded to the proposal by contacting the FSB. And the transfer of money was already under the control of operatives. Kondrat explains what happened by the fact that Makhalkina lacked 5 million rubles. to buy an apartment and she borrowed money.
In court, on the extension of the preventive measure, the prosecution stated that Kondrat tried to put pressure on witnesses, use her connections, and also wanted to change her surname in order to go abroad. Pavel Kondratiev, an investigator for particularly important cases of the Department for the Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR in Moscow, said that Kondrat was in Grozny, where she “applied to the state authorities to change her passport data to Svetlana Khondrad.”
The ex-judge denies his involvement in the crime, arguing that her criminal prosecution is falsified and is connected with her alleged refusal to comply with the illegal requirements of the leadership of the capital’s arbitration.
In February 2022, hearings on the merits of the criminal case of the son of the ex-judge and former Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia, Ivan Kondrat Nikolay, began in the Moscow Regional Court. He is accused of organizing a murder for hire (part 2 of article 105 of the Criminal Code), organizing preparations for the murder of two or more persons (part 1, part 3 of article 30, and also part 2 of article 105 of the Criminal Code), stealing a passport (Article 325 of the Criminal Code), as well as deliberate destruction of another’s property (Article 167 of the Criminal Code).
According to investigators, he ordered the murder of his personal driver Kirill Igitkhanyan because he knew about his other criminal plans. Among other materials of the case is the preparation of an assassination attempt on Makhalkina.
On September 1, 2022, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld the decision of the High Qualifications Board of Judges (HQJC) to give consent to the arrest of Kondrat. At the end of April last year, the HQCC agreed to the execution of the decision of the Supreme Court on the arrest of the former judge. Since May 4, she has been held in SIZO-6. The Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR), in particular, charged her with mediation in bribery on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The case was initiated personally by the head of the TFR, Alexander Bastrykin.
