MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. Moscow’s Basmanny Court on Wednesday blocked an amount of money on the banking account of Domodedovo Airport co-owner Dmitry Kamenshchik, lawyer for the affected persons in the airport security requirements violations case Igor Trunov said Wednesday.
"The court granted the request of the investigator and blocked 1 billion rubles [$15.5 million] on the account of Kamenshchik in Raiffeisenbank," Trunov said.
Court spokeswoman Yunona Tsareva told TASS that "the court, upon a request of the investigator, attached monetary funds owned by Kamenshchik and available on the settlement account of Airport Management Company Limited." The firm is Domodedovo Airport’s managing company.
Domodedovo Airport owner Kamenshchik was charged with a crime envisioned by the Russian Criminal Code (Fulfilling work or rendering services out of line with security requirements, which entailed, out of negligence, the death of two or more persons). The maximum punishment on the article is 10 years in prison.
Similar charges were brought against former head of the Russian office of the Airport Management Company Ltd Svetlana Trishina, managing director of Domodedovo Airport Aviation Security Andrey Danilov and ex-airport compound director Vyacheslav Nekrasov. None of the defendants in the case admitted their guilt.
According to investigators, an improper passenger security provision system in the airport made it possible in January 2011 for suicide bomber Magomed Yevloyev to enter, unhindered, the building of Domodedovo Airport’s air terminal with an explosive device hidden under his clothes and detonate it, which killed 37 people and left 172 wounded.
On May 17, the management of Domodedovo Airport signed an agreement on establishment of a charity fund to assist those affected by the terrorist attack. A total of 103 of the affected persons have received assistance so far.
Meanwhile, Trunov said the affected persons will appeal the blocking of the bank account of Kamenshchik as illegal and ungrounded.
"We will of course appeal the ruling, as all lawsuits on the part of the affected persons, filed earlier within the framework of this criminal case, were withdrawn today morning. Thus, the investigator had no grounds to request the seizure of the accused’s property," he said.
Trunov noted that he considers ungrounded the refusal of the court to allow representatives of the affected persons to attend the court session. He said all 64 statements on withdrawal of claims under the lawsuit were submitted to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.