MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. Former police officers from Moscow’s Western District bought and planted drugs on Meduza news website reporter Ivan Golunov in order to prosecute him illegally for bogus drug trafficking charges, Russian Investigative Committee Spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said on Wednesday.
The cops in question will be facing charges because of their illegal scheme. "Five defendants have been identified and taken into custody. These are former officers from the department of combatting the trafficking of heroin, synthetic drugs, psychotropic and potent substances at the Internal Affairs Directorate of Moscow’s Western District," she said.
The spokesperson identified them as Denis Konovalov, Akbar Sergaliyev, Roman Feofanov, Maxim Umbetayev as well as, Igor Lyakhovets, the department’s former chief.
According to the investigation, in June 2019, these former cops planted drugs in Golunov’s rucksack and in his apartment in order to indict the journalist, Petrenko detailed.
"In doing so, they falsified the results of the investigative activity, which were later used as evidence of Golunov’s guilt in the illegal sale of drugs," she specified. These police officers had illegally bought the drugs to be used in their scheme, and illegally stored and transported them.
Petrenko said that pre-trial restrictions are being selected at the moment. The criminal case is being probed by the Investigative Committee’s Office for the Investigation of Particularly Important Cases. The then police officers were detained in a joint operation with the Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Internal Security and the Internal Security Directorate of the Interior Ministry’s Moscow Department.
A law enforcement source earlier told TASS that former chief of the Western Administrative District’s Police Drug Control Unit Andrei Shchirov had been detained in the case on suspicion of abuse of office, as well as former detectives from the Western Administrative District’s police force Roman Feofanov, Maxim Umetbayev, Akbar Sergaliyev and Denis Konovalov.
While speaking to TASS on Wednesday, Golunov said he was was hopeful that a trial against the former police officers would be fair. "I am pleased to see progress in the case but justice will be done when there is a court ruling. I hope it will be a fair one," the reporter said.
Golunov case
On June 6, 2019, Golunov was taken into custody in Moscow on suspicion of selling drugs. Two days later, he was put under house arrest. He was released on June 11, following a public campaign in his support. All charges against Golunov were dropped.
Golunov's detention sparked a criminal investigation on charges of police abuse of power. The journalist was later deemed a victim.
During his State of the Nation Address in December, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the Investigative Committee had initiated criminal investigations against five former police officers following Golunov’s unlawful detention. The president disclosed that five people from the Interior Ministry services had been removed from service and fired. As to who initiated the Golunov case, the head of state said that this information is "not available yet.".