The former director of the national park was given free rein – Newspaper Kommersant No. 67 (7512) dated 04/18/2023

The sentence of the former director of the Samarskaya Luka National Park, Alexander Gubernatorov, who was previously sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement of almost 10 million rubles, was canceled. sponsorship funds. The court of cassation found that the district court committed “significant violations of the requirements of the criminal procedure legislation that affected the outcome of the case.” Sponsor companies themselves insisted that there were no complaints about the events they financed. Representatives of the environmental community, who spoke in defense of Mr. Gubernatorov, pointed out that the accusation was based, among other things, on the testimony of the national park employees, who were punished by the ex-director for service violations and forgery, and he himself, over the years of his work, “aimed at preserving the natural complexes of Samarskaya Luka” ”, acquired “influential ill-wishers among poachers”.

The Sixth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction overturned the sentence of the former director of the Samarskaya Luka National Park Alexander Gubernatorov. The criminal case was sent for a new trial to the Central District Court of Togliatti with a different panel of judges. Mr. Governors will be released from the colony where he is serving his sentence. The court decided to confine itself to a written undertaking not to leave and proper behavior.

Alexander Governors was sentenced by the district court to five years in a penal colony in May last year. The ex-head of the national park was found guilty of fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation): embezzlement of money transferred as charitable and sponsorship assistance for environmental events, construction and improvement of facilities and the territory of the Samarskaya Luka national park. He was also convicted for abuse of office (part 1 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

According to investigators, Mr. Governors embezzled almost 10 million rubles. donations received by Samarskaya Luka from several companies, including PJSC Togliattiazot and JSC Togliattisintez. The National Park allegedly asked the companies to allocate charitable assistance for development, the indictment read, but all the work was eventually carried out at the expense of Samarskaya Luka. However, at the trial, witnesses for the prosecution did not confirm the facts of fraud – the sponsoring companies explained that they had no complaints about the events they financed. Speaking with the last word, Alexander Gubernatorov said that the case was “custom-made”.

The defense of the ex-head of the national park had previously tried to challenge the verdict. However, in October last year, the regional court upheld the decision. In the appeal, the lawyers noted that the court proclaimed the verdict in an unsigned form. They drew attention to the fact that relatives and colleagues of Alexander Gubernatorov, as well as media representatives, were not allowed into the courtroom at the announcement of the verdict. The appeal also stated that the court unlawfully found the ex-head of the national park guilty of embezzling money from Coca-Cola HBC Eurasia LLC if there was sufficient evidence of the execution of the contract. According to the defense, the court had no evidence of Alexander Gubernatorov’s guilt in terms of using the official transport of the national park: “The place, time and date of the crime were not indicated.” “In fact, the judicial investigation was not carried out – without grounds for this, the testimony of almost all the witnesses given by them during the preliminary investigation was announced,” the defense side emphasized. “These testimony were ultimately included in the verdict. The testimony they gave in court was not included in the verdict and was ignored by the court.” The punishment “does not meet the principles of justice and humanism and does not correspond to the degree of social danger of the imputed crime,” the lawyers insisted: “The governor is almost 60 years old. He has never been prosecuted. Has many awards. Governors suffers from chronic diseases and lives alone with his wife, who also suffers from chronic diseases.”

The cassation instance partially agreed with these arguments and found that the first instance, when considering the criminal case, committed “significant violations of the requirements of the criminal procedure legislation that affected the outcome of the case”. “When passing the verdict, the totality of evidence presented by the prosecution and the arguments of the defense did not receive a proper assessment, the court did not take into account the circumstances that could significantly affect the conclusions about Gubernatorov’s guilt and the qualification of his actions, in connection with which the verdict and the appeal ruling, which did not eliminate the admitted violations were canceled,” the cassation court notes.

Earlier, the environmental community sent appeals to the prosecutor’s office and the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Samara Region, as well as to the chairman of the ICR, Alexander Bastrykin, in defense of the ex-head of Samarskaya Luka. It said that the criminal case was investigated in a biased manner, with conclusions not based on facts, and using the testimony of some employees of the national park, punished at various times by Alexander Gubernatorov for official violations and forgery. They believe that the ex-director of the national park over the years of his work, “aimed at preserving the natural complexes of Samarskaya Luka”, has acquired “influential ill-wishers among poachers.”

Note that this is the second overturned verdict against environmentalists in a few months. At the beginning of the year, four employees of the Kronotsky Reserve were sentenced to imprisonment for terms ranging from three to five and a half years, accused of embezzlement of state funds allocated for cleaning up the territory of Soviet man-made garbage. The court also satisfied the prosecutor’s claim in the amount of 454.6 million rubles. and the claim of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation in the amount of 16.8 million rubles. on recovery of damages. However, the regional court overturned the verdict in February 2023. The employees of the reserve were released in the courtroom on bail. Local authorities and Russian environmental organizations stood up for the convicts, and the prosecutor’s office during the appeal hearings itself asked to replace the real term with a suspended one. The case was returned for retrial by a different panel of judges.

Ani Ayvazyan, Samara