Platon Lebedev continues to demand to be heard in Moscow

On Tuesday the Ingodinsky district court in Chita began to examine in substance the complaint lodged by Platon Lebedev against T.V. Rusanova, an investigator with the Prosecutor General's office. He claims that she is guilty of concealing instances when documents of the criminal case were falsified.

The complaint has already acquired a history of its own. Platon Lebedev first attempted to file his complaint as far back as 19 July 2007 but the Ingodinsky court would not accept it until forced to do so by a ruling from a superior court. Then, on 7 November 2007, Judge S.V. Novikova of the Ingodinsky court ruled that the complaint should be forwarded to Moscow, to the Basmanny district court. In so doing, she admitted that the investigation into the case was, in fact, being conducted not in East Siberia but in the Russian capital. Such a ruling was not at all to the liking of the Prosecutor General's office and it responded with its own appeal. On 14 February 2008 the Chita Region Court took the side of the Prosecutor General's office. After withdrawing the transfer of the complaint to Moscow, the Court returned it for examination by the Ingodinsky district court.

On Tuesday Platon Lebedev and his lawyers again demonstrated why it was inadmissible to hear the complaint in Chita. “All the investigative activities linked to the criminal case were carried out in Moscow,” says the declaration read out in court by Platon Lebedev, “therefore, Moscow is the place where the preliminary judicial investigation should be held. It is unlawful to detain the defendant in Chita.”

His lawyers petitioned for the complaint to be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Basmanny district court in Moscow. The court then announced it would adjourn until 10 am on Wednesday.

Platon Lebedev’s complaint

The former head of Group Menatep wants the actions of investigator T.V. Rusanova of the Prosecutor General's office in concealing the falsification of evidence to be qualified as unlawful.

In 2003 a search was conducted at Lebedev’s home. When the accusation that he had evaded payment of tax as an individual was under discussion at the Meshchansky district court in Moscow sometime later, the prosecution alleged that American Express cards were confiscated during the search. The defendant and his lawyers responded with a declaration that no such cards had ever existed. They could not have been confiscated, therefore, and the written record of the search indeed contained no mention of them.

The defence petitioned at the time for these mysterious cards, which had suddenly become such an important piece of evidence, to be presented for general examination in court. The court declined the petition. Yet in the verdict issued on 31 May 2005 there was again reference to this “evidence”, the physical existence of which had not been confirmed. The virtual American Express cards also surfaced once more in the documentation of the second criminal case against Platon Lebedev.