“Kommersant” became aware of the grounds on which the Basmanny District Court, instead of extending the detention in a pre-trial detention center, released under house arrest the former and current deputy head of the Migration Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, as well as two entrepreneurs – their accomplices. All four are accused of organizing illegal migration. However, the court considered that, since the defendants had never opposed the investigation, which has been ongoing since 2021, their release would not interfere with the TFR in the future.
Given that the previous term of arrest was supposed to end on January 22, and they did not have time to complete all the planned investigative actions in the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR, the investigation petitioned the Basmanny District Court to extend the deputy head of the department for migration issues of the capital’s main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vyacheslav Fokin, his predecessor in this position Dmitry Takhtaulov, as well as entrepreneurs Andrei Shkolnikov and Vitaly Abramov of detention until April 22. One of the motives for this was the complexity of the investigation, within the framework of which it is necessary, among other things, to establish the whereabouts of two dozen witnesses – migrants, whose stay in Russia was legalized by the defendants in the case, and to interrogate them. At the same time, representatives of the investigation noted that it was impossible to release the accused, since they could hide and continue their criminal activities.
However, in the Basmanny Court, which, as a rule, meets the wishes of the investigation, this time they decided differently. Moreover, this was done even despite the fact that the requirements of the investigation were supported by the employee of the Prosecutor General’s Office supervising him. The judge, “evaluating the circumstances under investigation in the case, the materials presented and the information that the crime was committed in 2021,” concluded that the defendants had not been in hiding since that period and had not changed their permanent place of residence. She found that the defendants have positive characteristics, raise children and provide assistance to elderly parents. And most importantly, I came to the conclusion that there is no evidence of the desire of the accused to evade criminal responsibility, attempts on their part to put pressure on any of the participants in the case, and the presence of other negative factors.
In this regard, the court concluded that “unhindered criminal proceedings in this criminal case” are possible through the application of milder preventive measures in the form of house arrest to the defendants.
The accused, who face a seven-year sentence, were ordered to be immediately released from the pre-trial detention center and sent home, where they will be under the control of the Federal Penitentiary Service until at least April. At the same time, they were forbidden to use means of communication and the Internet.
