The Rostov-on-Don Southern District Military Court sentenced Mikhail Muzraev, former head of Russia’s Investigative Committee (IC) for the Volgograd region, to 20 years in a strict-regime colony in the case of arson of the house of Volgograd governor Andrey Bocharov. On this subject informed TASS correspondent.
“Muzraev was found guilty. By partial addition, appoint 20 years in a strict regime penal colony, with the deprivation of the special rank of lieutenant general of justice and state distinctions, ”said the judge.
Entrepreneur Vladimir Zubkov, who is also accused in the case, was sentenced to 14 years in a strict regime colony.
How writing Kommersant, according to investigators, Muzraev, the first deputy prosecutor of the Volgograd region, then head of the investigative commission, built a “shadow power structure” in the region and led it from 2003 to 2014. Bocharov, according to investigators, pursued too independent a policy, which angered Muzraev, who decided to kill the governor. Muzraev himself during the debate declared his innocence and called the charges against him speculation based on false testimony from interested parties.
The arson case
On the night of November 16, 2016, attackers tried to set fire to a country house rented by the family of the governor of the Volgograd region, Andrey Bocharov. The fire was extinguished and no one was injured in the incident. Bocharov said he has repeatedly received death threats since taking charge of the region in 2014.
During the arson investigation, Evgeny Remezov, the former director of the Volgograd Central Market, was arrested. According to the prosecution, since 2003 he has been renting a plot of 16.5 thousand square meters from the municipality. m on favorable terms and leased it for retail space to farmers and small entrepreneurs. He had a conflict with Bocharov, as he wanted to return the site to municipal ownership. Remezov admitted to having asked artists Dmitry Ushakov, Ivan Zheleznikov and Vitaly Semisotnov to set fire to the governor’s house. He said he acted on Zubkov’s advice in Muzraev’s interests.
Muzraev and Zubkov were arrested in 2019. They were charged under paragraph “a” part 2 of Art. 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“a terrorist act committed by a group of persons by prior agreement”) and Part 1 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“illegal acquisition, transfer, storage, transportation or carrying of weapons, their main parts, ammunition”).
In 2020 Zheleznikov, Semisotnov and Ushakov were sentenced to terms of six to eight years in a strict regime colony. Remezov in 2021 received six years in prison.
