Russian Briton who ordered the murder of ex-son-in-law released to all four sides

As it became known to Kommersant, an unexpected turn took place in the criminal case of businessman Alexander Kibalchenko, who now has British citizenship. Accused of murdering his own son-in-law, Mr. Kibalchenko, who suffers from a number of diseases, was released from the SIZO under house arrest a month ago, however, following complaints from the prosecutor’s office and the victims, the decision was canceled and sent for review. The court postponed consideration of this issue for almost a month, appointing an examination. Thus, the person involved in the case, who faces up to life imprisonment, was left without any effective measure of restraint. The alleged perpetrators of the murder are being held in prison.

The decision to cancel the mitigation of the measure of restraint for 66-year-old Oleksandr Kibalchenko was made on Monday by the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction on the relevant submission of the prosecutor’s office and the complaint of the representatives of the injured party. Recall that the elderly man was ordered to be released from custody under house arrest a month ago by the Moscow Regional Court, where the trial began on his charge of organizing a contract killing (part 2 of article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). As Kommersant reported, a stock exchange trader, permanently residing in England and having British citizenship, was detained by criminal investigation officers and investigators of the TFR in the spring of 2021.

According to investigators, Mr. Kibalchenko organized the kidnapping and murder of his own son-in-law, a talented mathematician and physicist-programmer Timur Zainiev.

They had disagreements after the latter’s divorce from his wife. Former spouses shared both real estate and the possibility of custody and meetings with children. Litigation, during which Mr. Zainiev won a ban on the export of children to his father-in-law in the UK, was accompanied by quarrels and mutual accusations. According to the TFR, it all ended with the fact that after one of the sessions of the programmer, right in front of the courthouse, three people hired by Alexander Kibalchenko were stuffed into a car, immobilized with a stun gun, and taken to a garage near Moscow, where one of them, a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Roman Osipov, strangled the victim . The operatives solved the crime in hot pursuit, detaining both the killer and his three accomplices: Vladimir Filimonchuk, Maxim Enbekov and Vladislav Melnikov. They gave confessions, including how the customer came to the place of massacre to verify the death of a hated relative.

Alexander Kibalchenko himself was detained at the station when he was boarding the Moscow-Minsk train. He categorically denied his guilt, while his henchmen either admitted it or suddenly declared that they had slandered a respected person. However, given the severity of the crime, for which the Criminal Code provides for punishment up to life imprisonment, detention was the only non-alternative measure of restraint. However, as Kommersant said, at the preliminary hearings in the Moscow Regional Court, Mr. Kibalchenko’s lawyers asked to be released from the pre-trial detention center on medical grounds. They provided documents that their client suffered a stroke in custody, and, according to its consequences, he has poor control of his arm and leg. His diagnosis is indeed on the list of diseases approved by a decree of the government of the Russian Federation, excluding stay in the isolation ward. As a result, Judge Larisa Stuneeva released the man.

Prosecutors and the victims questioned the medical evidence, insisting that there were no conditions specified in government documents: the patient does not need treatment in a special hospital, and the disease does not limit his life. At the same time, Oleksandr Kibalchenko’s lawyers asked to soften the conditions of house arrest. As a result, the appellate court sided with the prosecution and the victim’s relatives, deciding to cancel the decision to change the preventive measure and send it for a new trial. This happened on the eve of the next meeting, so far preliminary in the case, where the technical aspects of the future process are discussed and the jury selection begins.

However, at a meeting on Tuesday, the court did not return to the issue of a measure of restraint for Oleksandr Kibalchenko. According to Kommersant, it was only decided to send his medical documents for examination, which must be carried out before the next meeting on April 18.

Thus, British citizen Kibalchenko is now left without a preventive measure at all, since the term of the previously chosen arrest has expired, and the home arrest has been canceled.

“We found ourselves in a completely incomprehensible situation, but we hope that it will be resolved in the very near future – both with a preventive measure for the accused of committing a particularly serious crime, and with his medical report,” one of the lawyers of the injured party, Anton, told Kommersant. Zharov. According to him, the conclusions of the doctors contain “contradictions that are visible to the naked eye”, which was confirmed at the meeting of the appellate instance by a specially invited neurologist.