In Adygea, Aslan Bezrukov, leader of the Public Association "For Justice," remains in custody

Aslan Bezrukov, an entrepreneur and activist, well-known in Adygea, is kept in custody. Only his advocate has access to him, his wife Saida did not see her husband from the moment of detainment, reports the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot." According to detainee's wife, he was presented a charge in relation to his custody, as to the basic accusation, the investigation is over.

"The prosecutor's office of Maikop," she said, "is justifying refusal to provide a meeting by the fact that, once the investigation is in process, leakage of information is possible. But what sort of information, when the case is generally clear." Bezrukova noted that from the moment of detainment - April 17 - he announced a dry hunger strike, which lasted for 15 days. Now, he has successfully quitted the hunger strike, and, in the words of the advocate, feels OK, his spirits are active, he is ready for struggle. He is confident of his rightness and has no doubts that he would prove it.

According to Vassily Semyonov, city prosecutor, who gave an interview to Maikop television on April 26, this severe restriction measure was applied to Bezrukov for two reasons. Firstly, to stop his attempts to hamper the investigation, such attempts were made and are fixed. They are concealment of documents, telephone calls to his partners to warn them about searches, etc. Secondly and mainly, the available threat from defendant Bezrukov towards the participants of the criminal proceedings. The prosecutor announced "certain materials of the criminal case, which are no longer an inquest secret, since the defender and his client have been acquainted with them."

Mr. Semyonov explained the appearance of these materials by the fact that under decision of the court, telephone and other talks of Bezrukov were tapped. According to the tapping, in the work study of Director General of the OJSC "Afisha" a dialogue took place between the owner of the study and Askerbij Kardanov, chairman of the public organization "Circassian-Libyan "Friendship" Society," in which the former accused Andrei Fatin, senior assistant of the prosecutor of the Republic, of racketeering. Responding to this, according to investigation, Kardanov said: "Be myself in your place, I'd have killed all these Jews long ago." In answer to this, the owner of the office offered to his counterpart: "Go, find someone who could do it with pleasure. We'd remove one or two, and everybody would calm down. You ask there, and clear out. I speak serious."

At the press conference, the floor was given also to Andrei Fatin, senior assistant of the prosecutor of the Republic, whose role in the above dialogue was that of a racketeer. He spoke a lot and emotionally, called the case to be mere "criminality," and Bezrukov - a "criminal," but uttered not a single word about racketeering.

In this connection, Saida Bezrukovа explained to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot," that before her husband's detention on April 17, a search was made in her house. Eight operations agents were working, but found nothing: "no plans of attempts, no suitcase with money, and, of course, no arms." As to the conversation itself, Bezrukovа thinks that even if such dialogue had taken place, it had originated from Kardanov. He was trying, mainly emotionally, to remove stress from Bezrukovа, related with the pressure on him from the prosecutor's office. "And now," she noted, "Kardanov comes to us, and we talk to him."

We remind you also that the main charge of Bezrukov was a fraud attempt. In the course of examination, in the opinion of investigation, a transaction was revealed. It was concluded by Director General of the OJSC "Afisha" with a private commercial enterprise. The transaction was concluded on the terms knowingly unfavourable for the state enterprise, and, in the opinion of the prosecutor's office, with the aim of an especially huge theft of the property of the enterprise: 3.5 million roubles.

However, there is another explanation of what has happened. Aslan Bezrukov, being a deputy of the State Council of Adygea - Hase, supported in 2005 the requirement of the public movement "Council of Workers of Maikop" and the Republic's branch of KPRF to bring the communal tariffs into conformity with federal standards. The court trial and protest actions related thereto took place in Maikop during the whole last year. In December 2005, two massive pickets were held in the town, and one of co-organizers of them was the public association "For Justice," headed by Bezrukov.

Revisions at Bezrukov's enterprises started from May last year, when he publicly supported the protesters. Last December, they became especially active. The entrepreneur was arrested immediately after his deputy term expired. The trial on communal tariff revision was won, and the decision on bringing these tariffs in conformity with federal standards was announced on March 21. According to the decision, it is considered proved that the sum of 37.7 million roubles has been spent by the administration illegally, in total, at recalculation, the sum may reach 180 million roubles. Therefore, the authorities of the city are not in a hurry with recalculation. On the other hand, they have launched a "counter-attack" by detaining Bezrukov.