Consideration of Dudko's case to continue on June 1

As ruled by Judge Natalia Larina, the trial of blogger Alexei Dudko would continue at the Taganka District Court in Moscow on June 1.

In the course of the session held on May 26, three witnesses were questioned: Vera Rodionova, deputy head of the 3rd division of the expert-criminological service of the Tsentralny District of Moscow; Nikolai Turukhin, one of the search witnesses; and Alexei Shibalov, an operative agent of the Taganka ROVD (District Interior Division).

Abu Gaitaev, Alexei Dudko's advocate, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that it was not quite clear why the witness Rodionova had been summoned, since, in his opinion, she has nothing to do with the case.

"Nevertheless, she brought, apparently accidentally and unknowingly, to the court a certificate about examination of the powdery substance, confiscated at personal search of Dudko. For a long time we could not receive this certificate. All this mess with time indication - in the certificate on the powder examination, and in the protocol of Dudko's detention gives reason at all to exempt Alexei from all charges of drug dealing," said Gaitaev.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that according to the above certificate, the examination of the powder was carried out on May 5, 2010, at 2:50 a.m. On the other hand, according to the detention protocol, Dudko was detained on that very day at 2:45 a.m. Both advocate Gaitaev and his client are sure that no examination of the confiscated substance could be made in five minutes; therefore, most likely the certificate had been prepared in advance.

The employee of the Taganka ROVD Shibalov was personally withdrawing the package with the powder. According to his story, he arrived at the place of Dudko's detention by the order of his bosses.

"After withdrawal, the powder was taken for examination to Petrovka 38; at night no examinations are made at the Taganka ROVD," added Shibalov.

The witness at search Nikolai Turukhin confirmed the fact of powder withdrawal, as well as of a knife and a flash-card from the defendant; and the fact that Dudko stated that the powder had been planted on him.

After a break, Judge Larina listed the documents studied under the case. The defendant objected to some of them, such as those relating the search of his flat, where many violations were admitted. The judge said that "she understood everything."

The lawyer Gaitaev and the defendant Dudko submitted a petition to the court asking to summon the witnesses - employees of the FSB Albert Barakhoev and Alexander Ivanov, and investigator Yulia Pakhomova. This petition was satisfied by the court; however, the petition on adding the video with the search of Dudko to the files of the case was dismissed.

Besides, the defendant recalled that back in 2009 he applied to the prosecutor's office against his relatives, who wanted, as he said, "to do everything possible to bypass him and alienate his flat". "They seem to have bribed the above law enforcers so that they detain me," said Dudko.

The examination identified the substance confiscated from Dudko as "a narcotic mix" containing heroin. Besides, the search of Dudko's flat revealed trotyl (TNT) blocks and a timing mechanism. According to the defendant, these blocks had already figured in some other criminal case.

"They were withdrawn in 2001 and have not yet been liquidated; there's an appropriate document on this issue. Later, they were planted into my flat," said Dudko.

Judge Larina could not find the above document in the case file; and the defendant said that many papers had been withdrawn from the files.

It was also announced at the trial that Dudko is a Sunni Muslim, while the investigator believes that he professed the radical trend of Islam.

Alexei Dudko links this attitude to him by law enforcers with the fact of his acquaintance with Magomed Evloev, the owner of the oppositional website "Ingushetiyaru". "The FSB had thought that I kept the servers of this website. However, since it was not true, they, of course, found nothing," Dudko said to the judge.

Valery Konovalov, Dudko's close friend, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Alexei is a very tough opponent of heroin; therefore it was highly unlikely that he would keep it and - moreover - use the drug. "Because of his Internet blog, the man is pictured almost as an international terrorist," said Konovalov.