The former governor of Russia's Khabarovsk region, whose arrest sparked massive protests in 2020 against the Kremlin, was sentenced this Friday to 22 years in prison in a maximum security prison for two murders and one attempted murder, committed two decades ago, when he was engaged in business.
The judges of the court, located in the city of Liúbertsi, in the Moscow province, consider it proven that in 2004 and 2005 Furgal ordered the murder of businessman Yevgueni Zori and former police officer Oleg Bulátov, in addition to the attempted murder of businessman Alexander Smolski. According to the indictment, Zori and Smoslki had become serious competitors for Furgal's business, so he decided to eliminate them. Bulatov was an uncomfortable witness.
In the trial, three other people were also convicted as accomplices: Andrei Karépov, whom the former politician would have commissioned the murder, who will be sent to prison for 21 years; and the executioners: Andrei Palei, sentenced to 17 years; and Marat Kadírov, 9.5 years old.
None of them acknowledged the accusations.
During the trial, Furgal assured on several occasions that he is innocent. He and his supporters insist that this case is politically motivated.
A week ago, when a jury found him guilty, the former governor pointed out that his defense had called a hundred witnesses but only two of them had been taken to testify. According to him, the investigators hide evidence.
"Your Honor, I understand everything, you understand everything and the jury understands everything. All I'm saying is let this case be investigated. They want to close it. Trust the facts. Punishing innocents is a sin. Respected jurors, are you ready to take it on? I can't accept being destroyed," Furgal said emotionally on February 1, as he delivered his last word in court.
Sergei Furgal, born in 1970, was a member of the ultra-nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), in theory one of the opposition formations, but in practice loyal to the Kremlin.
In 2018 he stood for the elections for governor of Khabarovsk Krai (next to the border with China). He was seen as an instrumental candidate, with little chance against the official candidate of the government United Russia party. But he ended up winning in the second round.
Charismatic and close to the people, during his two years in office he had achieved great popularity in the region.
He was detained in July 2020, and shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed him citing "loss of trust."
His arrest sparked massive demonstrations in the regional capital, Khabarovsk, and in other cities in the Russian Far East. Putin appointed another LDPR member, national deputy Mikhail Degtariov, as his replacement. However, that did not serve to stop the protests.
These were held practically every day and on weekends tens of thousands of people gathered in Khabarovsk (population 600,000), a significant demonstration of discontent with Moscow's policy towards the region.
The demonstrations lasted for more than a year, but they lost strength and ended up dissolving. Due to them, the authorities decided to move the trial against Furgal near Moscow, and not in Khabarovsk, as many of the protesters requested.
One of the three episodes examined by the jury and the court at the trial was the attempted murder of Alexander Smolski. This businessman had become a serious competitor of MIF-Khabarovsk, Furgal's company. In July 2004 they tried to kill him with grenades in the Amur region, neighboring Khabarovsk. The jury ruled that the perpetrator of the attack was Marat Kadyrov.
In October 2004, Yevgeni Zori, whose company had come into conflict with Furgal's, was shot dead near his home.
In addition, the jury found that the defendants organized, prepared and carried out the death of Oleg Bulatov, who was a former employee of Furgal and was allegedly aware of one of the crimes committed.
According to the prosecutor's investigation, Kadyrov and Palei were part of a criminal organization in the region.
