MOSCOW, February 5 (Itar-Tass) - Retired main intelligence department Colonel Vladimir Kvachkov has again denied the charges of attempted armed mutiny with the view of overthrowing Russia's Constitutional order.
"The charges are groundless, because there is a right to insurrection in Russia," Kvachkov said during the arguments of the parties at the Moscow City Court.
In his opinion, the prosecutor was unable to prove his culpability.
At the previous hearings, he also denied the charges of planning a munity, but acknowledged the setting up of "guerilla units" to rebuff foreign intervention.
On Monday, the prosecutor demanded that Kvachkov be sentenced to 14 years in a maximum security penitentiary, and Alexander Kiselyov, the second defendant, to 12 years, and have their freedom restricted for two years after serving their sentences. The prosecutor also demanded that the defendants be stripped of their military rank. He insisted that their guilt had been fully proven.
Kiselyov, too, rejected the munity plans charges, but admitted illegal keeping of firearm. He claimed the investigators had failed to establish any connection between him and Kvachkov, and that the investigator had actively "put psychological pressure on witnesses and threatened them with criminal prosecution."
The investigator said Kvachkov, in order to implement his design, enlisted several persons, including Kiselyov, and issued instructions to them. "For example, he ordered to find people in Moscow for preparing an armed munity. His agent Manrik selected such people, and sent them for military training to the Myakinino firing range," Prosecutor Alexander Remizov noted, underlining the Kvachkov had engaged in similar activities in St Petersburg and Samara.
According to the prosecutor, Kiselyov had recruited a group of ten persons in St Petersburg in 2010 and purchased weapons. On July 10. 2010, he instructed them and named the date of the mutiny. During that period - from April through July - he was preparing the munity and selected the town of Kovrov, Vladimir region, as the venue for illegal actions.
Kvachkov and Kiselyov planned to seize the buildings of the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Emergency Situations Department in Kovrov, as well as weapons and ammunition. However, the retired Colonel was unable to carry his plans through due to extraneous circumstances.
Kvachkov and Kiselyov were charged with attempted armed munity and recruiting or involving persons in terrorist activity. The latter is also charged with illegal keeping of weapons and ammunition.
Earlier, a court in Yekaterinburg convicted several persons with the attempted mutiny case.
Kvachkov was the key suspect in the case over the assassination attempt on the life of chief of RAO UES electric utility Anatoly 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 Chubais attack probe.