2022-09-12 10:19:29
Excerpts from Mr Stepanov’s witness statement on the repeated attempts to kill me, committed in an publically dangerous way
1. Around 2012, Sychev contacted me in connection with several unusual road accidents in which he found himself. Three of his cars with a short interval of time on the move flew off the wheels, and also failed the brakes. The cars were new and expensive. In two cases out of three, Sychev's cars were damaged to such an extent that it was no longer possible to repair them. Sychev told me that just at that time he was forced to resign from PhosAgro. Around the beginning of 2013, Sychev told me that he was nevertheless forced to resign from PhosAgro and that this was connected with the fulfillment of oral obligations to him, providing for the transfer of part of PhosAgro shares to Sychev as a reward.
2. Sychev also turned to independent experts to find out the reasons for the accidents, as a result of which his cars flew off the wheels and failed brakes. Experts came to the conclusion that the cause of these accidents was the actions of intruders who unscrewed certain nuts on cars in such a way that at some point when the car was moving, these nuts would fly off completely, after which the wheel would fly off.
3. I helped Sychev with a statement to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation about attempts on his life. The preliminary (pre-investigation) check on this application did not begin for a long time, which was contrary to the requirements of the law, according to which the pre-investigation check must be completed within a maximum of a month. After Sychev and I took a number of legal steps, the check finally began in the Investigation Department for the Nothern District of Moscow. The investigator appointed a new expert examination, entrusting its conduct to the Federal Budgetary Institution “Russian Federal Center for Forensic Expertise under the Ministry of Justice of the RF”. This institution is one of the most respected expert institutions in Russia. The examination took a very long time and ended around the beginning of 2016. The experts came to the same conclusions as the previous experts, to whom Sychev himself turned directly. It became obvious that it was really about several attempts on the life of Sychev.
4. The next day [after the search in the framework of the fabricated criminal case against Sychev] expired the period of verification on the statement of Sychev about repeated attempts on his life. At the same time, shortly before this, the experts completed the examination appointed by the investigation and came to the conclusion that the cause of the detachment of the wheels was the actions of intruders. That is, now the investigation had no choice but to initiate a criminal case and conduct an investigation. However, contrary to the expert opinion, on 18 March 2016, an illegal decision was made to refuse to initiate a criminal case.
5. In the period from spring 2015 to March 2016, Sychev and I repeatedly appealed to the investigative body in charge of this check, gave additional explanations, provided documents. We demanded that a criminal case be instituted as soon as possible, since the signs of crimes were obvious long before the end of the expert examination. However, the investigating authority postponed the resolution of this issue until the completion of the examination. Sychev three times during this period of time applied to the investigating authority with a request for state protection under the program for the protection of witnesses and victims. In them, he indicated that he connects the attempts on his life with his professional activities at PhosAgro and its unwillingness to fulfill obligations to him. However, none of his statements on this issue was even considered.
6. At the same time, the investigator (in particular, Mr. Prihozhikh) made it clear that they understand everything, but the decision on this issue is made “above”, without specifying what exactly is meant by this.
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