“They refused to talk to us. Znak.com found witnesses in Ivan Golunov’s case, but failed to get them to talk” — Anatoly Loginov’s commentary to Znak.com

Today the General Prosecutor’s Office inquired all police subdivisions in the Western District of Moscow for information on witnesses and buyers involved in criminal intelligence activity in drug dealing cases. Znak.com found out that Ivan Golunov's personal search protocol did neither contain any addresses of wintesses nor their dates of birth. Znak.com managed to find the place of residence of these people. One of them turned out to be a resident of Nizhny Novgorod. Both witnesses refused to talk.

“That gets you thinking.”

Ivan Golunov’s personal search protocol was drawn up on June 6 from 15:40 to 16:10 by criminal intelligence detectives of the Public Monitoring Commission for Western Administrative District of the Main Directorate of the MIA of Russia for Moscow Junior Sergeant R. V. Feofanov and Senior Lieutenant A. A. Sergaliyev. The search protocol mentions the names of two witnesses: Sergey Kuznetsov and Dmitry Bokarev. However no other information about the witnesses was included by the police officers in the protocol: no date or place of birth, no place of registration, not even the place of residence, which are required for further summoning for questioning by the investigator or to court.

A copy of this protocol (held by Znak.com) with the rest of the documents at disposal of the investigation was submitted to Nikulino District Court of Moscow on June 8, where the pre-trial restriction for Ivan Golunov was imposed. Judging by the fact that judge Mikhail Maksimov had no problem sentencing the journalist to house arrest he had no questions to the search protocol which had been drawn up by the field investigators with basic procedural violations.

Sergey Kuznetsov and Dmitry Bokarev were also the witnesses of the search of Ivan Golunov’s apartment on Veshnyakovskaya street, as we learn from the premises search report (a copy of the document is also held by Znak.com). This report was drawn up by Senior Lieutenant A. A. Sergaliyev on June 6 from 21:00 to 22:10. And this is the first document to contain fundamental witness data — addresses of actual residence or registration (the report doesn’t not state which one).

If we trust the data in this official report, the 27-year-old witness Dmitry Bokarev is registered and resides in Nizhny Novgorod Region, in a settlement called Lomovka (details of the address omitted). According to Yandex.Maps and a data base of postal codes, Parkovaya Street, where Bokarev is registered, does not have a single residential building, only dachas. Technically Bokarev can be registered in a country house. However, as reported by our source, the place of residence or registration of witness Bokarev is the same settlement of Lomovka, but the house is situated on a different street called Sovietskaya. Some time ago Bokarev could have been working in Nizhny Novgorod Regional Government, but Znak.com hasn’t managed to either confirm or refute this information so far.

Interestingly, Bokarev didn't permanently reside in Moscow; the young man took regular trips to Moscow from Nizhny Novgorod. According to Znak.com's information, the last time Bokarev arrived in Moscow was June 2, that is 4 says before Ivan Golunov was detained.

A Znak.com's reporter tried contacting Dmitry Bokarev, but he kept ignoring his messages on Vkontakte and then changed his profile type to private.

The second witness involved in Golunov's search and that of his apartment is the 24-year-old Sergey Kuznetsov. Judging by the data provided in the search report for Meduza journalist's apartment, witness Kuznetsov resides and is registered in Moscow on Maryinsky Park Street in the same building where the police office is located. As Znak.com managed to find out, the young man is actually registered at this address. He appears to live there with his father, his brothers and sister. Znak.com didn’t manage to contact Sergey Kuznetsov at the available phone number; his brother Aleksey picked up the phone and explained that he had no idea whether his brother was present at Ivan Golunov’s search. Aleksey Kuznetsov also refused to pass the phone to Sergey.

According to the information available to Znak.com, neither Bokarev nor Kuznetsov have ever been held administratively/criminally liable.

Sergey Kuznetsov

Lawyer and Partner of Pen & Paper Anatoly Loginov explained to Znak.com that the personal search protocol must contain not just the last, first and middle names of witnesses, but also their fundamental data. It’s preferable to also specify the date of birth to make the witness is over 18. Besides, it’s mandatory to specify the place of residence of the witness to summon them to questioning if necessary. At the same time the lawyer stresses that the Criminal Procedure Code does not expressly specify these requirements. And since the Code does not contain a specific the form of the personal search protocol, the court cannot invalidate such a protocol. “But in any case the lack of fundamental data in the protocol gets you thinking, why didn’t they specify that? At that stage the investigator does not even have to double check the information provided by the witnesses,” Loginov says.

Ivan Golunov’s lawyer Sergey Badamshin told Znak.com that he sees a violation in the lack of complete witness information. We will definitely file a complaint, but in its own time, Badamshin said.

Znak.com submitted and official inquiry to the Main Directorate of the MIA for Moscow on violations committed as to drawing up of the search protocols. As of the moment of publication of this material we haven't received a reply from the institution yet.

If you have any information about these people, including about their involvement as witnesses in other investigative activities, please contact the author of the text at am@znak.com.

Golunov’s case

Meduza’s special correspondent Ivan Golunov was detained on June 6. On June 8 Nikulino District Court of Moscow sentenced him to house arrest on charges of attempted drug dealing (art. 30 and art. 228.1 of the Criminal Code). The police claimed to have found packages of such drugs as mephedrone and cocaine on Golunov and in his apartment.

The journalist insists the drugs were planted. According to him, the law-enforcement officers beat him up and would not allow him to contact his family. The doctors said they found a hematoma on Golunov’s back, multiple scratches on his chest and rib injuries. They also reported a suspected brain concussion. At the hearing Golunov pleaded innocent and claimed to link his detention with his publications on funeral business, with regard to which he had been threatened multiple times.

In the morning of June 10 the key Russian business newspapers, namely Kommersant, Vedomosti and RBK, for the first time in history released issues with the same feature. The words on their covers said: I/We are Ivan Golunov. The media published a joint editorial statement demanding thorough investigation of the journalist's case. On June 12 journalists are planning to hold a rally in Moscow in support of Ivan Golunov. On the same day Yekaterinburg will see a gathering of citizens by the Regional Main Police Directorate building.