Gaitaev: power agents conceal circumstances of search in Dudko's flat

On May 10, the Taganka City Court of Moscow held a session on the case of the blogger Alexei Dudko. Three witnesses - law enforcers, including Ildar Tikarev, who commanded the search in Dudko's flat about a year ago - were questioned. According to Abu Gaitaev, the blogger's advocate, the circumstances of the search are hushed up by law enforcers.

Let us remind you that Alexei Dudko, known on the Internet under the nickname of ingushetiya_ru, was arrested in Moscow on charges of drug and explosive possession; and from May 7, 2010, was kept at the Butyrka SIZO (pre-trial prison). In July 2010, the blogger was transferred to the Lefortovo SIZO. Alexei Dudko refuses to admit his guilt and insists that his social and informational activities are the real reason for his persecution. He complains that the drugs and the explosive were planted on him at detention, when he was beaten. Human rights defenders expressed their concern about the further development of Dudko's case and his health condition.

In the course of interrogation in the courtroom, Ildar Tikarev reported that "his boss" had sent him to make the search. "The information that Dudko was a terrorist and he should be searched had been received from the FSB. There were about five of us; I don't remember for sure; it was quite long ago. His wife opened the door; and in the course of the search we found weapons - knives, machetes, explosives, extremist literature and a package with white powder," said Tikarev.

According to his story, the wife hampered to the search and asserted that the detected knives and machetes were gifts.

Advocate Abu Gaitaev asked Tikarev whether witnesses were present during the search, what the illumination in the flat was, and whether all the rooms were searched.

The witness Tikarev answered that the witnesses were standing right behind him; and the detected articles were shown to them. The room of Dudko, where the search was conducted, was under daylight illumination, no electric light was on. From his words it also became clear that the search was actually conducted in one of the three rooms of the flat. Moreover, one of the rooms was searched quite superficially. As stated by Dudko himself, the agents "even did not touch anything, which can be seen in photographs."

Tikarev was in charge of the search, but he proved unable to name the rest of the searchers, referring to the fact that it was long ago, and not all the agents were presented to him. "Besides," as he said, "I was just writing down."

Advocate Gaitaev moved a petition to question other agents-searchers, because, as he said, according to Tikarev's evidence, the search took place with violations; however, the judge dismissed the petition.

The next witness - Sergey Zaborny, - who made a search of the car, also could not give the names of those who worked with him. Dudko asked to check Zaborny's evidence on a polygraph about the literature, allegedly found in his car, but no reaction of the court followed.

The last appeared witness was the district policeman Alexei Arsentiev. He noted that the situation in the Dudko family was not simple; and they often turned to him. Madina Bokova believed that it was the district policeman who acquainted her with the people who contributed to Alexei's arrest and installed tapping devices in their flat and spy ware into their computer. The policeman said to this: "I don't know, I don't remember, probably not." Arsentiev noted that he had learnt about the search post factum only.

The consideration of the case was postponed until appearance of other witnesses, and reappointed on May 26.

Advocate Gaitaev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that, judging from the muffled evidences and attempts to silence the circumstances of the search, they try to put his client behind bars by all possible means.

"The real reason for Dudko's persecution is apparently in his blog, which was disliked by many, as well as in his acquaintance with the now slain Magomed Evloev, the owner of the Ingush oppositional website. Evloev had had plenty of incriminating evidences against state officials. Probably, someone was afraid that he could share this information with Alexei Dudko, and the latter would post it on his blog," added Gaitaev.

Madina Bokova, as she said, could not get money for their children; and her financial situation was disastrous. "We've drawn up a proxy, under which I should get money from Alexei's bank account, but for some reason they don't give me the money," said Madina.

Earlier, Madina told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she did not believe that her husband was guilty and that the investigation was objective; she noted that her husband's arrest led to the fact that she found herself in misery with her two small kids.