During the appeal hearing on the extension of the detention measure for the priests accused of preparing an assassination attempt on Metropolitan Tikhon, lawyers reported that their clients were tortured by law enforcement, a correspondent from "Mediazona"* reported.
The case involves two defendants: Tikhon's assistant Denis Popovich and cleric Nikita Ivankovich, both of whom have been in pre-trial detention since mid-February. The defense requested a mitigation of the detention measure, arguing that both Popovich and Ivankovich "can and should be held outside the detention center."
According to Nikita Ivankovich's lawyer, his client was coerced into giving necessary testimony during an investigative experiment through torture with electric shocks. The accused told the lawyer that after the torture, he confirmed the law enforcement's version on camera because he "thought his heart would stop."
FSB investigators claim that the accused hid fake documents in a stash in Terletsky Park, allegedly issued to them by Ukrainian intelligence services. However, "Novaya Gazeta" noted that the origin of these documents can be traced online — they do not belong to the arrested individuals, their photos are simply pasted in, and these are internal passports with which it is impossible to escape.
Lawyer Larin argued in court that the FSB's own investigative experiment proved that it was a fake stash: "Ivankovich held nothing in his hands except a sacred book. [According to the investigation's version], he supposedly dug frozen ground with a sapper shovel with these hands. <...> They found a small pit, covered it with leaves, and after another round of torture in the minibus, they brought him with the words 'show it there.'
Lawyer Maria Eismont informed the court that her client Denis Popovich was subjected to pressure: "Unauthorized methods of influence were used: torture with electric shocks, threats, beatings."
She also quoted Popovich's words said in the court of first instance: "The accusations being made, the videos being broadcast in the media, were indeed extracted under the influence of electric shocks, several takes were recorded to ensure we gave specific, precisely calibrated testimony. As for murder, for me, it is an absolutely unacceptable thing, especially of a spiritual person."
At the end of February, the FSB reported the arrest of graduates of the Sretensky Theological Academy in a case of preparing a terrorist act — they are accused of preparing the murder of Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea Tikhon Shevkunov. The agency claims that the assassination was being prepared "on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence."
* Recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent."