The official defender of former commander of the 58th Army Ivan Popov, Sergei Buinovsky, has filed a motion to summon Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov for questioning as a witness. Famous Russian military blogger Yuri Podolyaka announced this today, September 3, by publishing a screenshot of the document.
“For a comprehensive, complete and objective study of all evidence in a criminal case, as well as to confirm the innocence of Popov II in the fact charged against him, we submit a request to call as a defense witness the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, General of the Army V. V. Gerasimov, who can confirm the essential circumstances of this criminal case, including the need to strengthen the defense, about which he personally reported to General Popov II several times. The investigator has not yet informed us about the results of the consideration of our request to interrogate V. V. Gerasimov, we have currently filed a complaint with the higher leadership of the Investigative Committee, so far there has been no response.” – says the petition.
At the same time, Buinovsky notes that the investigation, for unknown reasons, does not give any answers to his request and he is forced to file a complaint to the head of the Investigative Directorate of the GVSU of the ICR, Major General of Justice. Oleg Sokhrin.
“This allows Sergei Buinovsky to publicly raise the question: will at least the formal signs of an “independent” investigation be observed in this case or not?” Yuri Podolyaka is indignant. “Or the case of General Popov, where all boundaries have already been violated, not even decency, but SHAME, will finally turn into a shameful trial befitting a popular general.”
As reported EADaily Major General Ivan Popov was arrested in May on charges of large-scale theft – 1.7 thousand tons of metal worth more than 130 million rubles. On July 15, he was placed under house arrest. However, he does not admit his guilt and wants to return to the combat zone.
On August 20, the general’s lawyer, Sergei Buinovsky, claimed that Popov’s signature on the criminal case documents turned out to be fake: it was on them that the accusation was based. According to the lawyer, a handwriting examination ordered at the initiative of the investigative commission confirmed this fact. Thus, the examination proved his client’s innocence and all the evidence in the case was circumstantial. Neither the court nor the prosecution responded to this statement.
