A defense lawyer for the prime suspect in a criminal case dealing with an assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine claims significant inconsistencies were revealed when a court studied the documentary proof presented at the hearing.
Olga Chertog, a lawyer for Adam Osmayev suspected of plotting to kill Putin, told journalists that some objects changed their location between the first and second search at the apartment in Odesa where a fire broke out on January 4, 2012, which actually gave rise to the investigation into the assassination attempt on Putin. Chertog said this is evident from photos taken during the search and a search report.
Second, Chertog said, the door to the said apartment was wooden during the first search and metal during the third search. Moreover, it was seen in the pictures that the door was visibly open during the third search, although detectives had sealed it after the second search.
The lawyer said there were other inconsistencies in the case as well.
The court has announced a recess in the hearing until August 21.
It was reported earlier that Osmayev had been detained in Odesa on February 4, 2012 on suspicion of having carried out a bomb attack on Tyraspolska Street on January 4. The blast killed 26-year-old Russian citizen Ruslan Madayev and seriously injured Ilya Pyanzin, a 28-year-old citizen of Kazakhstan.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office later forwarded the criminal case opened by the police on charges of “careless handling of weapons, ammunition, or explosives” to the Ukrainian Security Service department for the Odesa region, as investigators had found elements of improvised explosive devices at the fire site.
Meanwhile, Pyanzin was detained as well and started actively cooperating with the investigation.
The Ukrainian Security Service said on February 27, 2012 that Osmayev and Pyanzin had plotted to murder Putin after the presidential elections in Russia scheduled for March 2012 and that Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services had thwarted the plot. Based on the suspects’ testimony given in March 2012, the Ukrainian investigative agencies opened a criminal case against them on charges of “establishment of a terrorist organization” and “preparations for a terrorist attack.”
Russia asked Ukraine in summer 2012 to hand over Osmayev and Pyanzin, but the men’s defense lawyers contested the prosecutor’s decision on their extradition. Despite the fact that the courts upheld the extradition to Russia, the delay enabled Osmayev’s lawyers to file a claim contesting his extradition with the European Court of Human Rights.
Pyanzin’s lawyers prepared to file a similar claim but failed to do so before Pyanzin was extradited to Russia in late August 2012. In Russia, he recanted the evidence he had given in Ukraine.
The investigation into the criminal case against Osmayev was completed in the fall of 2012. On November 16, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office endorsed the indictment and sent it to the Odesa Primorsky District Court. A preliminary hearing of the case was held on December 5, 2012, at which the court declined the Osmayev defense’s request that a more careful investigation be conducted.
The first hearing of the case on its merits took place on December 24.
Osmayev’s lawyers have repeatedly complained that the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies were restricting his right to defense. Osmayev himself claimed also that the Ukrainian Security Service had been pressuring him.
