On August 7, the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction began to consider the appeals of the defense against the verdict to the ex-senator from Karachay-Cherkessia (KChR) Rauf Arashukov and his father – former Advisor to the General Director of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Raul Arashukov.
On December 27, 2022, the Moscow City Court found them guilty of a variety of crimes, including two episodes of organizing a murder, organizing a criminal community and nine episodes of theft of natural gas and embezzlement of funds in the amount of 3.8 billion and 782 million rubles, as well as abuse of power and coercion to give false testimony.
According to the verdict, the Arashukovs were sentenced to life imprisonment with serving in a special regime correctional colony (those sentenced to life are sent to such). When assigning a term, Judge Elena Guchenkova noted that father and son pose a particular danger to society.
The court session in the appellate court did not last long. The panel of judges could not move on to consider the complaints on the merits, since one of the lawyers is on vacation, and another defense lawyer has joined the case, who has yet to familiarize himself with the materials.
At the meeting on August 7, it became known that not only the defendants and their defense lawyers, but also the prosecution were dissatisfied with the verdict. Public prosecutor Maria Semenenko also filed an appeal. Lawyer Ekaterina Malinovskaya clarified to Vedomosti that the prosecutor’s office appealed the verdict in terms of civil claims satisfied by the court, but the defense does not yet know exactly what amounts the department wants to correct.
The next hearing to review the legality of the sentence is scheduled for September 5.
Together with the Arashukovs, four more defendants in the case were in the dock – Kazbek Bulatov, the former first deputy head of the department of the Investigative Committee (IC) for the KChR, Timur Betuganov, the former head of the republican center for countering extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Andrey Filippov, the former investigator for especially important cases of the head of the Investigative Committee for the KChR and director of the branch of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Stavropol LLC Guzer Khashukaev. He is the only one who pleaded guilty and gave incriminating evidence against other defendants.
The Moscow City Court sentenced Bulatov and Betuganov to 22 years in a penal colony with a strict regime, Filippov was sentenced to 6.5 years in a penal colony and Khashukaev was sentenced to 5 years in a penal colony.
Along with the verdict, Judge Guchenkova granted civil claims from the victims for damages. From Rauf Arashukov, the court recovered 4.5 million rubles in favor of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Cherkessk, 740 million rubles in favor of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Stavropol, in favor of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Stavropol, in favor of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Stavropol, 7 million rubles And according to the court decision, 3.234 billion rubles were recovered from the father in favor of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Stavropol, and 472 million rubles in favor of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Pyatigorsk.
In compensation for moral damages, Shebzukhov’s widow, Alla Kambiyeva, was awarded compensation in the amount of 3 million rubles, his brother Fral Shebzukhov was also compensated for the damage in the amount of 3 million rubles, the victim Zhanna Shebzukhova – 3 million rubles. and Ruslan Khabzanov – 1 million rubles. The civil claim of the victim Fral Shebzukhov for compensation for disability and reimbursement of expenses for treatment was left without consideration.
The court decided to turn the property of the Arashukov family arrested during the investigation into state revenue after the verdict came into force – to pay off civil claims. In addition to numerous real estate objects, a whole fleet of vehicles was seized from them, including about 90 cars, including Bentley, Lexus, Mercedes, Porsche Cayenne, Hummer and the retro car ZIS-115.
Until the appellate court considers the complaints, the verdict will not enter into force and the defendants in the case will be in jail.
4.4 billion rubles
For this amount, Arashukov Sr., together with his accomplices, stole natural gas on the territory of the Stavropol Territory and the KChR, and also embezzled funds from gas industry enterprises under the guise of payment under work contracts and wage payments to relatives
As the lawyers previously told Vedomosti, they intend to seek the annulment of the verdict and the consideration of the criminal case a second time. In their opinion, during the trial in the Moscow City Court, pressure was exerted on the jury and such a verdict cannot be considered lawful.
The investigation and the court established that Arashukov Sr., together with his accomplices, stole natural gas in the territory of the Stavropol Territory and the KChR, and also embezzled the funds of gas industry enterprises under the guise of payment under work contracts and wage payments to relatives for a total amount of 4.4 billion rubles
In addition, in 2010, the father and son organized the murders in the city of Cherkessk of the representative of the Circassian youth movement Aslan Zhukov and the adviser to the head of the KChR Fral Shebzukhov, who interfered with the activities of the criminal community. In addition, Rauf Arashukov organized the beating of Cherkessk City Duma deputy Ruslan Kardanov in order to change his testimony about his involvement in the murders.
The Arashukovs have been under arrest in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center since January 2019. They consider the criminal prosecution politically motivated and are convinced that they could have been ordered by their predecessor as a senator from the KChR, Vyacheslav Derev, and the former Minister of Internal Affairs of the republic, Kazimir Botashev.