A valuable witness in the case of Hero of Russia Magasumov, who was detained after the murder, disappeared without a trace.

The crime story, which seemed unusual from the very beginning, acquires new oddities every day. Moreover, the majority are from the category of “the devil will break his leg.”

Deputy commander of the 74th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade (OMBSR), Lieutenant Colonel Irek Magasumov, is accused of murdering a resident of Lugansk. According to investigators, on August 11, Magasumov, with a group of colleagues and two girls, celebrated receiving the Star of the Hero of Russia from the hands of Vladimir Putin in the Lugansk cafe “Panorama”.

For an unknown reason, the holiday escalated into a conflict, during which one of the ladies was shot and killed. Irek Magasumov denies his involvement in the crime and claims that he was not at the scene of the tragedy at the time of the fatal shot. A colleague of the Hero of Russia, Lieutenant Pavel Yaskevich, declared his guilt in the incident. However, the investigation continues to insist that it was Magasumov who pulled the trigger.

MK obtained a number of important documents in the case of Irek Magasumov. Here, for example, is the arrest order (a copy is available to the editors). In September, a career soldier of the Ministry of Defense, Irek Magasumov, was taken into custody for two months… by a civil court. Why this happened is a mystery.

But for some reason the investigator took the suspect not to the garrison military court (and there is one in Lugansk and it works properly), but to the Leninsky District Court of the capital of the LPR. Meanwhile, military personnel of the Russian law enforcement agencies should be judged by military courts. For example, the absolutely “armchair” FSB Colonel Denis Cherkalin, who became notorious thanks to huge bribes, was taken under arrest by the Moscow Garrison Military Court and was subsequently convicted by it. And for some reason, combat officer Magasumov in the LPR went to a pre-trial detention center at the behest of a civilian judge. Translated from Russian into legal language, this is called a violation of personal jurisdiction.

The defense tried to cancel the arrest order for Magasumov. And she canceled it. On October 5, six days before the end of his detention, the Supreme Court of the LPR issued a new ruling, which literally crushed colleagues from the lower court (a copy is available to the editors). This document is even more interesting. This conclusion of LPR Supreme Court Judge Chebotarev deserves special attention:

“In the appealed decision, the court of first instance did not assess the validity of the suspicion of Magasumov’s involvement in the incriminated crime; there are no references to specific information indicating the involvement of this particular person in the crime committed.”

It would seem that such a devastating resolution is quite enough to set the prisoner free. But the investigation received a second chance from the Supreme Court of the LPR. With a new demand for the arrest of the serviceman, the detectives turned to the address – to the garrison military court of Lugansk.

But this is where “the devil is in the details” events begin to unfold. After the LPR Supreme Court canceled the initial arrest, the investigation had no choice but to try to “play the tape” again – that is, to request the same preventive measure for the same period anew. Just go to the right court. The detectives did just that: they filed a petition for the arrest of Magasumov, who was detained on suspicion of murder on August 12, until October 11. They just filed this petition…on October 11th.

The result was pure surrealism. On October 11, the judge of the Lugansk garrison military court, Valery Shurpa, issued a decision to place Magasumov in custody until October 11 (a copy is available to the editors). The representative of justice acted absolutely correctly. But what should have been done immediately after he uttered the last word when reading his resolution?

That’s right, release Magasumov from custody. On the sole basis that the arrest period came to an end on October 11.

But something went wrong again. The lieutenant colonel’s wife, Anna Magasumova, said that the administration of the pre-trial detention center simply did not find out about the decision made in court. Why didn’t you find out? Yes, because the convoy that escorted her husband back to the detention center, for some unknown reason, did not take with them a copy of the court order. Or he captured it, but lost it on the way. Or I didn’t lose it, but forgot to report it to management. There are a lot of versions you can build here.

“MK” has at its disposal the response of the head of pre-trial detention center No. 1 of the LPR Karpinsky to the request of Magasumov’s defender, lawyer Vladimir Agapov. The letter states that “the resolution of the Lugansk Military Garrison Court dated October 11, 2023 was received in pre-trial detention center-1 on October 13, 2023.”

“My husband spent two days in a pre-trial detention center completely illegally,” says Anna Magasumova. — Only on October 12, the investigator for particularly important cases of the first investigative department of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Shishov, filed a petition to the court to extend Irek’s arrest. It was reviewed on October 13. My husband will remain in custody until January 3rd. But, as the lawyers explained to me, the investigator had to go to court with a demand not to extend the old arrest, but to establish a new one. After all, on October 11, the period of detention expired. How can you prolong something that has already ended?

Moreover, as Anna Magasumova said, very strange events began to happen in this story in recent days.

According to Anna, the key witness in the case, Lieutenant Pavel Yaskevich, disappeared without a trace. Previously, Yaskevich wrote a confession twice. The serviceman claimed that it was he who fired the fatal shot, which killed an 18-year-old resident of Lugansk. Magasumov, according to Yaskevich, was not even at the crime scene. His words are confirmed by the testimony of two witnesses, servicemen Artem Samsonov and Ravil Niyazov (copies of the testimony are at the disposal of the editors).

According to Anna Magasumova, Yaskevich’s version has not been verified by the investigation to this day. He still remains in the status of a witness in the case. But what’s strange is that Yaskevich, who remained in a military unit in Lugansk, recently disappeared without a trace.

“I know that Pavel was allegedly taken to Moscow for some investigative actions. What investigative actions can be taken in Moscow if the crime took place in Lugansk? — Irek Magasumov’s wife is perplexed.

The woman said that she managed to contact Yaskevich by mobile phone a few days ago. In the conversation, the lieutenant mentioned that he was allegedly under pressure from the investigation. After this conversation, Anna lost contact with her husband’s colleague. Magasumov’s lawyers also cannot find Yaskevich: he has disappeared into thin air.

“We know that Pavel was hospitalized due to chronic illnesses. But when the lawyers arrived at the hospital, he was not there. And when they asked the question to the investigators, they sarcastically laughed it off with the words: “Or maybe we took him outside the Moscow Ring Road. Now it’s better outside the Moscow Ring Road than in Turkey,” said Magasumova.

The wife of Lieutenant Colonel Irek Magasumov wrote several open letters, including to the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, and Vladimir Putin. In her petitions, the woman is trying to convey to the country’s leadership what Pavel Yaskevich himself wrote in his confession.

Irek Magasumov’s lawyers intend to get to the bottom of the truth and find out where the valuable witness went and why investigators so stubbornly ignore his confession. In addition, the defenders plan to appeal the latest ruling of the Lugansk garrison court, because of which the Hero of Russia will be forced to celebrate the New Year not on the front line, and certainly not with his wife and nine-year-old daughter, but behind bars.