Confusion at the trial of Furgal: human rights activist Merkacheva was interrogated without her

A representative of the prosecutor’s office stated a fact that did not exist

A curious incident occurred in the Moscow Regional Court during the consideration of the appeal against the sentence of Sergei Furgal. The ex-governor of the Khabarovsk Territory was sentenced to 22 years in prison for organizing contract killings.

As MK learned, during the debate, a representative of the prosecutor’s office disputed the statement of Furgal’s lawyers that many defense witnesses were not questioned during the trial. In particular, the prosecutor cited the fact that allegedly during the trial in the court of first instance, MK columnist Eva Merkacheva was interrogated. Furgal himself asked for her interrogation. This request was due to the fact that Merkacheva, when she was a member of the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission, visited one of the defendants in the case, Nikolai Mistryukov, in a pre-trial detention center as a human rights activist. It was on the testimony of Mistryukov that the accusation against the ex-governor was largely based. Mistryukov told a member of the PMC that pressure was being put on him, and also that he was not receiving medical care due to cancer (later this diagnosis was not confirmed). Furgal’s lawyers declared Merkachev as a witness for the defense; she even arrived at the court hearing, but did not even get into the courtroom. At the request of a representative of the prosecutor’s office, the judge refused to question Merkacheva.

Now the representative of the prosecutor’s office either forgot about that fact, or “confused” – he stated that Merkacheva was interrogated, which means that the lawyers’ requests were satisfied.

The next hearing in the case will take place on November 10, and another defendant, Andrei Paley, is scheduled to speak at it. After this, the court will retire to make a decision.