He decided it’s time for a change of scene

Court: RF Supreme Court
Defendant: Gennady Tzigelnik
Charged under: [RF Criminal Code] Article 105(2), murder
Sentence: 18 years in a high-security prison
Current status: Serving his sentence. Asking for transfer to a prison in Ukraine.

Gennady Tzigelnik, convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 1998 murder of Nefteyugansk mayor Vladimir Petuxov, asked the Supreme Court to transfer him from Volgograd prison No. 26 to Ukraine in order to finish serving his sentence. The grounds for Russian citizen Tzigelnik’s request are still unclear (Tzigelnik was convicted back in 2006).

At the Supreme Court session, it was learned that Tzigelnik first filed his transfer request with the Federal Penitentiary Administration, which passed it on to Volgograd Regional Court (as is law). That Court denied his request, whereupon the convict filed his complaint with the Supreme Court.

The General Prosecutor’s Office representative at the Supreme Court [hearing] opposed [granting Tzigelnik’s request for transfer], but the grounds for the supervisory agency’s position were rather curious: The prosecutor adduced to thecase file a letter from the Russian Investigative Committee which stated that Tzigelnik may still be useful to the investigation if investigators manage to detain former Yukos head Mixail Xodorkovsky, who, Russian investigators say, ordered Petuxov’s murder. This [accusation] came after Xodorkovsky was pardoned, and subsequently, Xodorkovsky was declared wanted. The Prosecutor’s Office says the investigative deadline in the Nefteyugansk Mayor’s murder case has been extended to June 30, 2018.

“I already testified and I am not opposed to continuing to testify; I’ll come if needed,” Tzigelnik said at the court session via videoconference from prison.

In the end, the Supreme Court did not examine the complaint on the merits, deeming it filed in breach of [rules governing] jurisdiction, and the case was sent back to Volgograd Regional Court.

What’s important in this rather routine court procedure is the background. According to the investigators’ theory, in 1998, Tzigelnik and another hitman, Evgeny Reshetnikov, shot and killed Petuxov and seriously wounded Petuxov’s guard. Tzigelnik and Reshetnikov were the General Prosecutor’s Office main “trump cards” in investigating and trying the case of former Yukos Security Division employee Alexei Pichugin. Their testimony formed the basis for Pichugin’s guilty verdict and life sentence. In court, Tzigelnik and Reshetnikovinitially testified not just against Pichugin, but also against Xodorkovsky and former Yukos shareholder Leonid Nevzlin (convicted and sentenced to life in prison in absentia; a few years later Interpol removed his name from the international fugitive database after finding his prosecution political [in nature]), but later Reshetnikov and Tzigelnik publicly recanted all this testimony.

During Nevzlin’s in absentia trial, at an April 2008 Moscow City Court session, Reshetnikov and Tzigelnik said they falsely testified against Pichugin and others under pressure from investigators [who promised] leniency in exchange – although [in the end] the investigators played them [and did not grant leniency].

Tzigelnik stated on the record: “I falsely testified against Pichugin and Nevzlin at the request of General Prosecutor’s Office investigators Burtovoi, Bannikov and Zhebryakov, and operative Smirnov. I made a deal with Burtovoi on May 4, 2005. I was promised protection and a minimum sentence, but what I got was the maximum sentence.” Tzigelnik also said that he actually first heard of Pichugin and Nevzlin only from investigator Burtovoi.

According to investigators, Yukos leadership decided to kill Nefteyugansk mayor Petuxov because Petuxov often accused Yukos of failing to pay city taxes. The investigators’ proof that the defendants were involved in the murder? A copy of Xodorkovsky’s ID showing that the Yukos CEO’s birthday is June 26 (the day Petuxov was killed). There was no other proof.

Pichugin’s defense, in turn, presented to court tax inspectorate documents showing that, at the time in question, Yukos had no current tax debt, and the payment plan for paying taxes in arrears (which Yukos inherited from the previous owner, the state) was being worked out at talks (which were derailed due to the mayor’s murder). Defense witnesses also explained that, in 1998, the [Russian financial] crisis year, Petuxov had tensions with the local duma over misspending government funds and also because Petuxov’s wife Farida Islamova’s company Debit was the biggest tax debtor. There was even a criminal case initiated against Debit leadership.

Right after Petuxov’s murder, investigators pursued various theories, including Petuxov’s wife’s possible interest in the crime (right after the murder, she inherited over half a Million dollars). There was also a theory related to turf wars over the [Nefteyugansk] wholesale grocery and consumer goods market. As mayor, Petuxov shut down the old market that was run primarily by people from the Caucasus [region], and opened a new market, much of which was controlled by his wife’s company Debit. The Petuxov murder case was closed in 1998 and was then reopened only in 2003, after persecution of Yukos started.

Still, neither Moscow City Court nor the Supreme Court had any interest in thesearguments or in Tzigelnik’s and Reshetnikov’s recantations, and thus they had no effect on Pichugin’s fate. Subsequently, [the] Memorial [Human Rights Center] recognized Pichugin as political prisoner, and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights recognized him as prisoner of conscience. In summer 2017, the Pardon Commission for the Orenburg Region (where Pichugin is serving his sentence) denied Pichugin’s pardon [request]. Actually, the president [of Russia] has the last word – which he has yet to say.

Source: Novaya Gazeta, He decided it’s time for a change of scene, April 11, 2018.