Mikhail Trepashkin's lawyer convinced in the accusatory outcome of the trial over her defendant

"Yes, the ruling to refuse the grant of parole has been passed by the court. But the trouble is that neither me nor Sergey Brovchenko, the other lawyer of Trepashkin, could attend the hearing, and we sent a telegram to Sverdlovsk court to this effect in advance," stated Elena Liptser to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "I have just talked with the Trepashkin's local lawyer and she has told me that the court had an intention to consider the case today."

For reference, today, the Sverdlovsk Region court refused to grant the cassation appeal of ex-FSB officer Mikhail Trepashkin who requested reversal of the ruling of Nizhni Tagil court on refusing him the grant of parole. The judge of the Sverdlovsk Region court has read out only the regulatory part of the ruling, refusing to grant Trepashkin his appeal. The court has thus declined the cassation appeal of Trepashkin who is sentenced for disclosing a state secret.

Yesterday, in response to the question of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on the possibility of holding a court session in the absence of lawyers, Sergey Brovchenko stated: "It is illegal because the law establishes that if the lawyers taking part in the proceedings could not come, the hearing must be postponed in any case." "If Mikhail Trepashkin states that he refuses the lawyers' services, only in this case the issue may be considered, but I think that it will hardly happen," stressed Sergey Brovchenko.

According to Elena Liptser, "the local lawyer of Mikhail Trepashkin has talked to the defendant in order to resolve the issue of postponing the court session using a telephone conference." "They started to communicate but the person who provided the communication channel told her: everyone in the corridor can hear what you are talking about. The lawyer asked the court for a permission to visit the prison where Trepashkin is kept but was refused," relates Elena Liptser. "The court clearly intended to complete the hearing today. Even the Trepashkin's requests that the hearing should be conducted in our presence did not convince the court. We are now going to appeal against the ruling by a supervisory procedure."

In response to the question of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about the legitimacy of such ruling, Liptser explained that "the law runs that, if the lawyer has been duly notified but failed to appear, the case may be considered without the lawyer." "But we sent a telegram that we can not attend the hearing today because we are engaged in other court sessions. In such cases, if the reason is good, the hearings are usually postponed," says the lawyer. "Everyone understands, these are different parts of the country, lawyers have different cases, it is impossible to stop everything because of a single case, there are other cases which have been accepted before."

"I am afraid, we have no chance if the court adopts this attitude. I think, in the near future Trepashkin will be transferred to the minimum security regime," stressed Elena Liptser.

For reference, the court hearing started on February 8, but the consideration of the case had to be postponed for an indefinite period. The defence filed a petition on the defendant's attendance of the hearing. In order to provide this, Trepashkin had to be brought to the pre-trial prison No. 1 in Ekaterinburg. The court hearings are going to be conducted via video conference, but there is no appropriate equipment for this at the Nizhni Tagil penal colony where the ex-FSB officer is held. Now, Trepashkin is in the pre-trial prison No 1. Note that, in November, the Tagilstroy District court of Nizhni Tagil refused the grant of parole to the former secret service officer and now a human rights activist, convicted for disclosing a state secret.

The first trial over Trepashkin was conducted in Moscow regional military tribunal from December 2003 to May 19, 2004. Trepashkin was found guilty of disclosing secret information which did not represent a state secret and illegal storage of arms. The charge of abuse of office (under art. 285, part 3, RF CC) was dropped due to statute of limitation. The defendant pleaded not guilty on all points of the charge and claimed that the case against his had been framed. He was sentenced to 4 years in a penal colony.

On May 19, 2004, Mikhail Trepashkin was sentenced by Moscow military tribunal for disclosing a state secret to 4 years of imprisonment at a penal colony. After one-third of the term, he filed a petition for grant of parole to the Nizhni Tagil court at the place where he was serving his term. The court granted the petition and released Trepashkin before term.

However, the prosecutor's offices of Nizhni Tagil and Sverdlovsk Region disagreed with the ruling and appealed against it in the Sverdlovsk Region court. Trepashkin was arrested by officers of Ziuzinskoye militia unit in Moscow again and escorted to Ekaterinburg.

On September 16, 2005, Sverdlovsk Region court overruled the ruling on grant of parole to Mikhail Trepashkin. The case on Trepashkin's release before term was returned for a new consideration in Tagilstroy District court of Nizhni Tagil. On November 24, the court refused to grant the petition on the grant of parole in connection with a disciplinary punishment imposed on Trepashkin when serving the term at the penal colony and due to the fact that he had not repented.

In December 2005, two Trepashkin's lawyers simultaneously filed cassation applications against the court ruling on the refusal on the grant of parole. The Sverdlovsk Region court is to consider them on February 8.

According to the prosecution, Trepashkin, while serving in the USSR KGB and RF FSB from 1984 to 1997, copied office files which he subsequently stored at home. In the course of a search at Trepashkin's house, investigation materials of the USSR KGB, RF Ministry of Security, FSK and FSB were confiscated both in hard copies and on diskettes and on computer. The expert study recognized about 30 documents as secret, in particular, reports on investigative actions on cases of 1997 investigated by Trepashkin.

The investigation considers as disclosure of information, which represents state secret, the transfer by Trepashkin to FSB Colonel Viktor Shebalin, his former colleague, of summary reports, tapping of telephone conversations of Golianovskaya OPG members (they, in the opinion of the investigation, contained information on the FSB working methods). In addition, about twenty cartridges were found in the course of the search at Trepashkin's house.

Trepashkin himself claims that that the gun was planted on him and the criminal cases against him framed. While in the penal colony following his second arrest, Trepashkin repeatedly claimed that he had fear for his life.

Earlier, Mikhail Trepashkin stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent: "I am deeply convinced that this is primarily a revenge for confronting Patrushev, the current FSB head. I think that he is a person who is not capable of ensuring safety of our citizens. It is a man who, by his moral qualities…If someone asks him to do something terrible he can do it."

For reference, after resigning from the security agency Trepashkin became a practicing lawyer and worked at the Public Commission on investigating 1999 terrorist acts in dwelling houses in Moscow. This work served as basis for the book by Yuri Felshtinskiy and Alexander Litvinenko "FSB Explodes Russia."

Several days ago, the "Caucasian Knot" was handed over an open address to the ambassadors of G8 in the Russian Federation on the issue of a treat to the life of political prisoner Mikhail Trepashkin. In particular, it runs: "The life of the Russian political prisoner Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin is directly threatened. He risks a drastic deterioration of his illnesses and a short work of criminals who are being set against him. We have lost hope to get a positive response from the Russian authorities. We have witnessed the futile attempts by the "Amnesty International" to protect him, and the refusal of the punishment enforcement system management to the Sverdlovsk Region Ombudsman, region of Russia, [who wanted to check] how Trepashkin serves his term. Therefore, we appeal to you as representatives of the powers which have become the closest partners of the Russian Federation in the "G8."

The document is signed by Liudmila Alekseeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group; Elena Bonner, human rights activist; Svetlana Gannushkina, "Civil Assistance" Committee; Lev Ponomaryov, movement "For Human Rights"; Yuri Samodurov, director of the Andrei Sakharov museum and public centre; Ernst Cherniy, secretary of the Public Committee to Protect Scholars; clergyman Gleb Yakunin, Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Conscience.