Relatives of Antonina Maevskaya assassinated in Sochi demand to reclassify the criminal case

In Sochi, the criminal case against suspects of murdering Antonina Maevskaya should be re-qualified, her relatives believe.

"Investigator is too leniently qualifying criminals' actions"

The suspects of the murder are Vorobyov, 30, his girlfriend Zhigulina, 23, and their friend Volov, 52. The case investigator has addressed the Court for the Tsentralny District of Sochi asking to place them into custody.

The criminal case against them was initiated under Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code: "Murder committed with no aggravating and no mitigating circumstances".

"We don't understand why the investigator has so leniently qualified the criminals' actions; although they acted in conspiracy and for mercenary reasons," said Yuri Maevsky, the casualty's stepson. Alevtina Morozova, Antonina Maevskaya's niece, agrees with him.

Their advocate Igor Kurochkin finds the relatives' indignation reasonable. According to his story, the difference in qualifying the crime is rather essential.

Thus, under the current qualification under Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code, the criminals are under threat of imprisonment for the term from six to fifteen years. However, according to the advocate and relatives of Maevskaya, the suspects should be qualified under sub-points "g" and "h" of Part 2 of Article 105: "Murder committed by a group of persons acting under conspiracy with mercenary motives."

"For such crimes, the imprisonment term of up to twenty years is stipulated; or the life imprisonment," said the advocate.

Along with that, the spokesperson of the Territorial Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) said that the legal assessment will be given to suspects' actions on committing a crime under points "g" and "h" of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code. With this aim in mind, the necessary investigatory actions are carried out in order to establish all the circumstances of the crime.

"We decided to act by our own"

The relatives of Antonina Maevskaya assert that all the belongings and documents, among which there was her testament, disappeared from the apartment. However, the investigator, according to their story, has not reacted so far to their demand to initiate a criminal case on the fact of looting the apartment.

"I made a statement to law enforcement bodies that the music library, which is of great value and which was bequeathed to me, disappeared from the apartment of my late father and his assassinated wife. And I can't understand the idleness of inspectors in this regard," says Yuri Maevsky.

Also, the relatives of the deceased woman are afraid that the criminals, who are still at large, can forge the testament and take possession of the apartment.

"We decided to act independently, in order to prevent the criminals' associates, who are at large, to capture the apartment of the murdered Maevskaya and implement their conspiracy. We assumed that if the testament had been stolen, and investigators fail to look for and find it, then, we need to go to the Archives at No. 1 Molokova Street, which holds second copies of testaments," said Alevtina Morozova.

Finally, as she claims, on April 11, the notary Natalia Serdyuk found in the archives the testament of Antonina Maevskaya to the name of Alevtina Ivanovna Morozova. The successor received a certificate for handing over to the notary Elena Pinchuk, who has instituted a hereditary case No. 24.