How the Main Investigative Directorate of the St. Petersburg Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs extracted “testimony” in the “Life-iz-Good” – “Hermes” – “Best Way” case
On December 5, at a meeting of the Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg, 75-year-old Zoya Magomedovna Semenova from Samara was questioned as a witness.
She told the court that she was a shareholder of the Best Way cooperative and a client of the Hermes company, a consultant who attracted clients to both Hermes and Best Way, but more to Best Way, since it was more interesting her acquaintances. She explained that Best Way and Hermes are different organizations, and not divisions of one, as the investigation and the state prosecution are trying to present.
Zoya Magomedovna had three agreements with the cooperative for the purchase of apartments, one of them was for her grandson. With the help of the cooperative, she said, many people bought apartments, including SVO members. Many did not have time to purchase due to the fact that the cooperative’s accounts were frozen, and he himself, the head of the investigation team, Vinokurov, was recognized as a civil defendant in a criminal case.
The cooperative, she emphasized, had been operating since 2014, really helped to purchase housing, no one lured people into it. The cooperative, Zoya Magomedovna explained, did not have any signs of a financial pyramid, which the investigation accuses it of.
Sapetova’s fictitious testimony
Zoya Magomedovna was invited as a witness for the prosecution; it was in this capacity that state prosecutors from the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office (covering up the crimes of the investigative group of the Main Investigation Department of the St. Petersburg Ministry of Internal Affairs) were counting on her.
But her testimony at the trial was completely at odds with what she (allegedly) gave during the investigation – to investigators Sapetova and Maltsev.
In the text made up by investigators and read out by the prosecutor, she:
– allegedly accused the cooperative of deceiving her – which she denied in court;
– allegedly made claims that the cooperative worked non-transparently, it was unclear how the queue for housing was formed, information about the state of mutual funds and other funds was closed from shareholders – she completely refuted this in court, saying that the cooperative worked absolutely transparently for shareholders, the information was available in real time, the mechanism of operation of “Best Way” was completely clear;
– allegedly told investigators that the work of the cooperative was based on deception – said in court: “We did not deceive anyone”;
– allegedly talked about the affiliation of the cooperative with Best Way and Hermes – which she also denied in court, emphasizing that these are different organizations;
– allegedly came to the conclusion that the cooperative is a pyramid – which she completely denied in court.
Zoya Magomedovna categorically rejected the testimony that she allegedly gave to the investigation: “I couldn’t say all this, I don’t even know these terms and words, I’m hearing all this for the first time, no one read the testimony out loud to me!” Thus, the investigators directly violated the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The pressure began with the arrest
Zoya Magomedovna explained to the court that she was detained at the airport in St. Petersburg – when she was supposed to fly to Samara along with other shareholders from the Samara region, with whom she came to the court about the arrest of the cooperative’s accounts in order to support the cooperative.
Before this, a neighbor called her and told her that the police broke into her house in Samara in her absence, they broke the doors, broke the windows and conducted a search without the owner. Moreover, Semenova was invited as a witness for the prosecution – on the basis of the testimony that she allegedly gave during the investigation (in fact, it was invented by the criminal investigator Sapetova) and which she completely refuted in court.
Gestapo man and deceiver
Zoya Magomedovna partially remembers the interrogation, partially does not remember – because she felt very bad: she had high blood pressure (she is a chronic hypertensive patient with a disability). Two investigators worked with her: Sapetova and Maltsev. Maltsev shouted at her and threatened that he would take her down to the basement right now. Sapetova spoke calmly, “getting into the situation.” But at the same time, she did not allow Semyonova to drink, which she repeatedly asked for, and did not allow her to breathe fresh air, citing the need to conduct the interrogation without pauses.
“The interrogation lasted 12 hours – and when it ended, I had no time to read. I signed without reading, just to leave quickly,” Zoya Semenova told the court.
That is, the investigators deliberately created risks to the health of the interrogated woman in order to fraudulently obtain the pre-written testimony they needed. And this is far from an isolated example – one of the witnesses died after interrogation at the Main Investigation Department.
It is outrageous that a fake criminal case, entirely consisting of such “testimony,” is covered up by the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, headed by Kolokoltsev. And also by the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office – although the lawyers of the cooperative and the accused warned the prosecutor’s office that the case was based solely on fake, drawn-up testimony and would fall apart in court!
Criminal investigators Sapetova, Maltsev, their colleagues in the investigation team, as well as Vinokurov, who led the investigation team, must be brought to criminal responsibility! The revealed facts should be the subject of attention of Prosecutor General Krasnov, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Bastrykin and Head of the FSB Bortnikov!
