Приговор при свечах / Judgment in candlelight - Владимир Анатольевич Арсентьев

jar and two torches. Sergeyev sat next to Moiseyev. Knyazev drove to the house at Moiseyev’s instruction. Moiseyev and Bednyakov exited the car, each taking a jar of gasoline and a torch. Moiseyev demonstrated a pistol, threatening to shoot Knyazev, forcing him to get out of the car and take the third jar of gasoline. Knyazev did not see what Sergeyev was doing. Moiseyev and Bednyakov broke two windows in the house, threw the gasoline jars inside, lit up the rags on sticks and threw them in the windows. Knyazev got back in the car and saw Sergeyev’s silhouette in the rear view mirror – he was extending the grenade launcher. After the explosion, everyone got back in the car and drove to another street, where Bednyakov doused the interior with gasoline from the third jar and set the car on fire.

Despite the obvious inconsistencies and motiveless changes in his story, defendant Knyazev confirmed at trial all the testimony he had given during pre-trial investigation and refused to comment.

Bednyakov was suspected of the murder of Barinova and Svetlova under Article 105 Section 2 Items A, E, and Zh of the CC RF, that is, of a crime sometimes carrying a death penalty. More than a year after the fire, without being provided a counsel to protect his rights and legitimate interests, he gave his first testimony. He told that after Biryuk’s burial, he went to the city of N together with Leskov, a man named Dima, and someone else. They waited for Leskov in a hotel in the city of N for several hours. Then they drove around the city. While Leskov was talking to Baldie, he and the hunter went to see the house they had to burn with the purpose of intimidation. Two or three days before that, he was surveilling that house at Leskov’s instruction together with three guys he didn’t know. Their objective was to establish the identity of “Herald” who, according to Leskov, had killed Biryuk. After making sure there was no light in the windows, Bednyakov and the hunter came back and saw Moiseyev. Leskov told that no one was supposed to be inside the house. At about 3 o’clock, two more cars arrived with Bragin, Dudko, and Blinov. Before that, Bednyakov saw the hunter holding a pipe and decided it was a grenade launcher because he had seen one on TV. They loaded three gasoline jars and two torches in one of the newly arrived cars. Leskov assigned everyone roles. Bednyakov and Knyazev each had to throw a gasoline jar in the windows of the house, and Moiseyev had to throw the burning torches; the hunter had to shoot the grenade launcher, and one jar was to be left to burn the car. Knyazev drove to the house. The hunter had armed the grenade launcher by that time. Bednyakov and Knyazev hurled the jars through the window glass, and Moiseyev threw the torches in the broken windows. The hunter fired a shot from the grenade launcher, and then they got in the car. Knyazev first drove them to Leskov’s car, then took a turn and stopped near a house, where someone doused the car with gasoline and set it on fire.

On the same day, according to the report, a confrontation was arranged between Bednyakov and Knyazev without their counsels. That did not, however, result in reconciliation, as both maintained their original views. However, Knyazev retracted his testimony about the persons who had committed the arson of the house and the car, claiming that he did not see who had hurled the jars and torches in the windows or who had set fire to the car.

On the next day, at the scene, Bednyakov, in the absence of counsel, changed his testimony and claimed that it was Sergeyev who fired the grenade launcher whilst Moiseyev held him at gunpoint. That information can be found in the report of additional scene inspection that involved suspect Bednyakov in order to verify his testimony.

As laid out by the investigation in the case documents, the suspicion that Bednyakov killed Barinova and Svetlova was not confirmed. For that reason, more than two years after the fire, he was indicted for demolishing the car and the house in connection with the case. From that day on, Bednyakov was also charged under Article 222 Section 2 of the CC RF with illegal transport of a grenade launcher as a weapon. Yhe state prosecuting attorney dropped that charge at trial and requested to acquit the defendant.

On the same day, Bednyakov in the presence of lawyer Shtern – Knyazev’s counsel – pleaded fully guilty and changed his testimony again. He told that Leskov explained on the scene that they had come to burn down Yezhov’s house. Bednyakov and Sergeyev went to have a scout around the house, and Bednyakov threw a pebble at the window to make sure there was no one inside – Leskov told him to do so. Leskov passed a pistol to Moiseyev just in case. Bednyakov and Moiseyev lit the torches and then threw the gasoline jars in the ground floor windows. Sergeyev left the grenade launcher near the house. Bednyakov did not see who set fire to the car interior. Moiseyev and Sergeyev got in Blinov’s car, but Bednyakov did not see that car.

Bednyakov refused to comment on the apparent inconsistency and motiveless changes in his testimony.

In view of all the above, the veracity of Knyazev and Bednyakov’s pre-trial testimony is doubtful.

Their testimony, in the manner and extent as presented in the case file, is belied by the evidence above, namely:

– the testimony of defendants Porokhov, Pervushin, Perov, Sergeyev, Moiseyev, and Bragin, who denied, both during pre-trial investigation and in court, their involvement in the events associated with the fire in Yezhov’s house and the circumstances of the offenses charged;

– the testimony of victims Pyzhov and Kozhin, who denied that any of the defendants had committed any violence against them