Jun-26-2003

Mr. Pichugin is formally charged with having organized the murders or attempted murders of: Viktor Kolesov, a Yukos company manager mugged and beaten up in October 1998; Olga Kostina, a functionary in the Moscow mayor’s office, whose parents had a small home-made explosive device detonate outside their apartment in November 1998 (Ms. Kostina did not live there); and Sergey and Olga Gorin, a Tambov couple who disappeared after their house was robbed by armed men in November 2002. No evidence links Mr. Pichugin to these crimes. Instead, the charges are based on layered hearsay about what the alleged perpetrators were told by others.