 Source: HRO.org (info) The Investigative Committee has brought a third charge against Left Front activist Leonid Razvozzhaev. According to a statement by the Investigative Committee, he stands accused of giving a knowingly false denunciation with aggravating circumstances (Article 306, Section 2, of the Criminal Code). As Grani.ru notes, on 12 December 2012, at the Basmanny Court in Moscow, Razvozzhaev pointed the finger at the investigator who had allegedly tortured him. Razvozzhaev does not admit his own guilt and is refusing to give evidence to the investigator. However the Investigative Committee "has established that his comments about torture were false." "Still in detention, he then applied to the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia regarding the illegal acts allegedly committed against him by the investigator. In addition, whilst he was in solitary confinement in the city of Angarsk, Irkutsk region, Razvozzhaev,having been notified that he was being held criminally liable for giving a knowingly false denunciation, has in the presence of lawyers continued his criminal activities, claiming that the very same crimes have been committed against him by an investigator of the Russian Investigative Committee," reads the statement by the Investigative Committee’s press service. Razvozzhaev was recently transferred from Irkutsk to Moscow and placed in one of the capital's remand centres. Razvozzhaev’s lawyer, Dmitry Agranovsky, announced back in early March that his client would be sent from the Irkutsk prison to Moscow. A week later it became known that Razvozzhaev had been transferred, however, it was not made clear exactly where. Four criminal cases have been initiated against Razvozzhaev. In October 2012 he was kidnapped in Kiev by the Russian secret services and arrested as part of the Anatomy of a Protest 2 case. Both he and two other Left Front leaders, Sergei Udaltsov and Konstantin Lebedev, were charged with organising mass riots using foreign money. Then a case was brought related to a robbery that Razvozzhaev had allegedly committed in Angarsk in 1997. That case was closed in January due to the expiry of the statute of limitations, which meant that he was not exonerated. Following that, the Investigative Committee suspected that the activist had illegally crossed the Russia-Ukraine border. Finally, on 18 January the case of giving a knowingly false denunciation was initiated. In early January it became known that Razhvozzhaev, seeking to avoid being transported to Irkutsk, had already consented to the closure of the robbery case on 15 December. "It isn't an admission, just a necessary step to avoid being subjected to degrading treatment," noted Agranovsky at the time. Nevertheless, Razvozzhaev was transferred to Siberia on 20 December. Udaltsov and Lebedev have been placed under house arrest and the Georgian MP Givi Targamadze, who was also charged as part of the Anatomy of a Protest 2 case, has had a warrant issued for his arrest. Consequently Razvozzhaev is now the only defendant in the case who is in custody. On 10 January 2013 the Anatomy of a Protest 2 case was combined with the case of the Bolotnaya Square riots of 6 May 2012. 24 people are currently under investigation. On 1 March it became known that the time period for the investigation into the 'Bolotnaya case' has been extended until 6 July. |
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