The criminal case of the police officer Alexei Smirnov, who opened fire near the Moscow metro station “Ryazanskiy Prospekt”, can be considered with the participation of a jury. This was reported on August 6 by TASS with reference to his lawyers Mikhail Kochergin and Alexander Samukhov.
“They have made a corresponding request, and the case should be considered on the merits in a jury trial,” Smirnov’s defenders said.
In addition, the lawyers finished reviewing the case materials the day before. According to them, a number of evidence does not meet the requirements of the procedural law, and the circumstances related to the case were either not established by the investigation at all, or not fully established.
Thus, the defense claims that only three OSB officers appear in the case materials, who took part in the operational-search measures against Smirnov, although the lawyers have evidence that there were four of them.
“The new circumstances were revealed precisely by the defense, which received information from the lawyer’s inquiries,” Samukhov stressed.
It is noted that the defense petitioned to establish the identity of the fourth participant in the events. According to their information, he could have been related to possible provocative actions against Smirnov.
The incident took place on September 18 in a police room at the Ryazanskiy Prospekt metro station. Security officers on the Moscow metro, Alexei Limonov and Maxim Veyalko, came there to detain Smirnov on suspicion of taking a bribe. According to media reports, the policeman intended to receive 1,000 rubles from an undocumented citizen.
Smirnov resisted and opened fire at his colleagues from service weapons. One policeman was killed, the second was hospitalized in serious condition. The suspect was detained.
A criminal case was initiated against him on encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer. Smirnov was later charged with accepting a bribe not exceeding 10 thousand rubles.