Grigory PUNANOV

"Izvestiya" newspapre, February 1, 1996

Translated into English by A.Prishchenko

A Golovin regional court of Moscow, as they inform, directed the case of Alina Virtukhnovskaya, accused of drugs trafficking, to an additional investigation. Virtukhnovskaya's lawyer, in his address to the city Prosecutor, asked to declare a private protest against the court's decision and not to send the case to reinvestigation, because, according to the lawyer, there is nothing to investigate again, and it's time to pass the sentence of not guilty because of an unproved guilt of Virtukhnovskaya. However, the Prosecutor of Moscow Sergey Gerasimov has rejected the address.

Again will be examined the evidences of four young people charged of the same article that Virtukhnovskaya is, and having been sentenced to imprisonment. All of them have witnessed at the preliminary investigation, that they have bought drugs from Virtukhnovskaya.

Virtukhnovskaya's lawyer considers that the case was sent to reinvestigation not to get more accusing episodes.

-- The court cannot pass a sentence of not guilty, because it will blacken the investigation bodies, but during the reinvestigation the case can be stopped short,-- he said. -- So, nothing threatens Alina Virtukhnovskaya. As for evidences against her to be investigated, they are an obvious forgery,-- the lawyer declared. They are dated November 25, 1994, when the investigation of Virtukhnovskaya's case has just begun, but they didn't appear in the case before for some reason.

The reinvestigation may last for a half of a year.