The three convicted in the Golunov case will be released from the colonies

Three former policemen, convicted in the case of journalist Ivan Golunov, will be released from the colonies – the court allowed to replace their imprisonment with forced labor in correctional centers of the FSIN. Golunov’s lawyer Sergey Badamshin confirmed the message of “Baza”.

The court of the Kirov region allowed the release of Maksym Umetbaev and Akbar Sergaliev, who received 7.5 years each, as well as Denys Konovalov, who was supposed to serve 4.5 years. In court, Golunov supported the replacement of the sentence for Konovalov and did not object to forced labor for Umetbaev and Sergaliyev.

The journalist, however, spoke out against changing the sentence for another former police officer, Roman Feofanov, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. As a result, the court rejected Feofanov. The fifth person convicted in this case, Igor Lyakhovets, the former deputy head of drug control in the Western Administrative District of Moscow, does not have the right to commute his sentence, he was sentenced to 11.5 years.

“Meduza” journalist Ivan Golunov was detained in June 2019 on suspicion of drug trafficking. A powerful public campaign was launched in Golunov’s defense, and a few days later he was released. Soon, criminal cases were opened against five employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the charge that they planted drugs on Golunov. At the same time, the journalist himself claimed that the police were only executors, but the investigation considered that they acted on their own.

In December 2022, the court also ordered Golunov to pay 1.5 million rubles to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “Baza” writes that the journalist has not received the money yet.