MOSCOW, August 31 (Itar-Tass) — Moscow's Basmanny court on Thursday set the deadline for reading case materials for the lawyers of Vladimir Kvachkov, accused of masterminding a munity. The deadline is set for September 21.
Earlier, investigator Konstantin Golodyzhko told the court that the defendant had heard 27 hours worth of audio files and that the rate of his familiarizing himself with the case materials was satisfactory. Yet, the lawyers, in the period from December 16, 2011, "only studied an insignificant portion of the documents and are deliberately delaying the proceedings, as the period of investigation has been extended to October 21, 2012."
"At present, the lawyers say they wish to see all the case materials, i.e. listen to 54 hours of audio records. What prevented them from listening to them before?" the investigator said.
The prosecutor, too, stated that the defense was stalling and asked for deadline in reading the case materials.
For his part, Kvachkov's lawyer Alexei Pershin asked "for a reasonable timeframe" to study the case, because it contains 50 hours worth of audio files alone, and not all of them have transcripts. Kvachkov's other lawyer Dmitry Nikitsky said "placing case reading restrictions on the lawyers violates Kvachkov's right to defense." Kvachkov's illness record lists concussion, while at present, he suffers from migraine, which slows down his rate of reading, according to Nikitsky.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said retired Colonel of Main Intelligence Department Kvachkov was a suspect under two articles of the Criminal Code: Article 279 and Article 30, Part 1 (attempted organization of armed mutiny) and Article 205, Part 1 (recruiting or involving persons in terrorism).
Kvachkov said he had been arrested on the testimony of a regional leader of the Narodnoye Opolcheniye (Militia) organization he leads.
The chief of Narodnoye Opolcheniye's Togliatti office was apprehended in the summer of 2010.
After ten days in custody he testified against Kvachkov.
"According to the testimony, there was a person in Togliatti, who sent two groups of people, armed with crossbows, to a forest to begin an armed uprising," Kvachkov said.
He said he was confident that the detainees' statements were distorted, in order to cast Narodnoye Opolcheniye and another organization - Minin and Pozharsky's Militia - as terrorist groups. "There are no facts in the case," the retired Colonel said.
Earlier, a court in Yekaterinburg convicted other defendants in this case.
Kvachkov was the key suspect in the case over the assassination attempt on the life of chief of RAO UES electric utility Chubais on March 17, 2005.
A jury found all the defendants in the assassination attempt case not guilty, in a marathon eight-hour session overnight to August 21, 2010. Kvachkov later won a 450,000-rouble damages suit.
Kvachkov had to undergo a psychiatric expert examination twice. The first was carried out within the framework of the Chubais attack case.