Jurors in Furgal’s case said that the judge pressured them

Three jurors from the judicial panel, which delivered the verdict in the case of the ex-governor of the Khabarovsk Krai Sergei Furgal, complained of pressure from judge Gennady Tsoi, Sibir.Realii reports.

Furgal, on the basis of a guilty verdict, was previously sentenced to a long term of imprisonment on the charge of organizing the murders.

According to the testimony of jurors Svetlana Kryvova, Zhanna Pernatskaya and reserve juror Evgenia Tsvetkova, which were heard during the hearing of Furgal’s defense complaint in the Moscow Regional Court, all of Judge Tsoi’s comments to the board “were discrediting the defense and supporting the prosecution.” In particular, the judge urged to “listen scrupulously to the statements of the prosecution” and “not to rely” on the words of the lawyers of the former head of the Khabarovsk Krai.

In addition, according to the jurors, two escorts were often present in the deliberation room, who were taken away only after the lawyers protested.

It is noted that Igor Chivyrev, the foreman of the jury in the Furgal case, did not confirm the information about pressure from the court, however, one of the jurors mentioned in an interview with RTVi that Chivyrev may have connections with officials of the administration of the city of Lyubertsy near Moscow, in which went through the process.

“We had a meeting place in the Lyubertsy city administration, we went to the meetings all together. Every day someone came up to him, shook his hand. He completely pretended not to be who he really is,” she said about Chivyrev .

• In July 2020, the ex-governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal, was arrested together with his former business partner Mykola Mystryukov on charges of attempted murder of businessman Alexander Smolsky and the murders of businessmen Evgeny Zora and Oleg Bulatov in 2004-2005. The former official did not admit his guilt and called his prosecution politically motivated. He considers the victory of the United Russia candidate in the 2018 gubernatorial elections as one of his reasons. According to the publication Meduza, the case against Furgal is almost entirely based on the testimony of one witness – ex-employee of the criminal investigation Vladimir Pershin. However, the judge of the Lyubertsy Court of the Moscow Region, Gennady Tsoi, sentenced Furgal to 22 years of strict regime.
• Since October 2021, Furgal is also accused of fraud and the organization of a criminal community. According to the investigation, after taking the post of head of the region, Furgal retained shadow control over the Torex group of enterprises, which he headed before entering politics. The companies that were part of “Torex” received about 2.5 billion rubles from “MSP-Bank”, which were then stolen.
• Mass actions in support of Sergei Furgal took place in Khabarovsk in 2020 and 2021. The participants of the rallies, which took to the streets in other cities of Russia, demanded consideration of the Furgal case in Khabarovsk, and also called for the resignation of the current regional and federal authorities. Later, many activists were persecuted: fined and arrested.