The First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction softened the terms of the police department of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Moscow Region, accused of trying to plant drugs on a journalist agents» — this includes human rights activists, politicians, activists, journalists, non-profit organizations and publications. The Media Law obliges us to indicate that Meduza is included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of media outlets that act as a «foreign agent.»</p>» data-type=»hint» data-slate-custom=»{"body":"<p>The Russian authorities continue to massively and unsystematically replenish the lists of «foreign agents» — they include human rights activists, politicians, activists, journalists, non-profit The Media Law obliges us to indicate that Meduza is included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of media outlets that act as a “foreign agent.”</p>","isCreated":false}»>Meduza » Ivan Golunov. This is reported by a TASS correspondent.
Most of the terms were reduced by six months: the head of the drug control department of the Internal Affairs Directorate for ZAO Igor Lyakhovets was assigned 11.5 years in prison instead of 12, operatives Roman Feofanov and Maxim Umetbaev — 7.5 years instead of 8, and Denis Konovalov — 4.5 years instead of 5 years in prison .
The term of operative Akbar Sergaliyev was reduced by nine months — from 8 years in prison to 7 years 3 months. They were sent to serve their sentence in a general regime colony.
The court also canceled the satisfaction of Golunov's claim against the police for 5 million rubles and sent it for a new trial.
Trial of police officers in the Golunov case. The verdict
The special correspondent of Meduza, who wrote about corruption in the Moscow government, was detained on June 7, 2019 in a drug trafficking case. Golunov said that the banned substances were planted on him by the police. The detention of the journalist sparked a massive public campaign in his support. As a result, the case against him was closed.
The five police officers who detained the correspondent were arrested only in January 2020. According to the investigation, the police planted drugs on Golunov for career reasons in order to increase the clearance rate of criminal cases. According to the Investigative Committee, the crime had no customer.
The security forces were charged with abuse of power (clauses «a», «b» and «c» of Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code), falsification of evidence and the results of operational-search activities (Part 3 of Article 303 of the Criminal Code), as well as illegal possession of drugs (Part 2 of Article 228 of the Criminal Code).