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The investigation did not have enough evidence against the expert
As Kommersant has learned, the Yalta City Court, after a retrial, fully acquitted forensic expert Alexander Penchakov, who was accused of negligence and falsification of official documents. The experienced expert, who performed the autopsy on the body of Deputy Director of the Moscow Department of Culture Leonid Osharin, who died in Crimea in 2021, despite the presence of multiple stab wounds, made the following conclusions in the death report: The civil servant committed suicide. Following excavations and a comprehensive commission investigation, the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) opened a criminal case on the fact of murder and accused Alexander Penchakov of attempting to obstruct the investigation of this crime.
In Yalta, a retrial of the case of 57-year-old forensic expert Alexander Pentsakov, accused of negligence and official forgery (Part 1 of Article 293 and Part 2 of Article 292 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), has begun. Court. Last summer. The case had to be retried in March 2022, and the same Yalta City Court found expert Alexander Pentsakov guilty and fined him 450 thousand rubles. However, the prosecutor's office of the Republic of Crimea appealed the court's decision, considering the punishment too lenient, and the appellate court only ruled to ban the convicted person from engaging in professional activities in the field of forensic examination for two years.
The basis for the reversal of the verdict in the case by Alexander Pentsakov, who did not admit his guilt, was that the appellant left without considering the lawyer's motion to terminate the criminal prosecution of his client due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The case was then sent to the Yalta City Court for a new trial.
Unlike the first trial, which lasted only two months, this time the judge needed about a year and a half to consider the parties' claims. As a result, the court concluded that there was no criminal offense in the actions of the defendant, Alexander Pentsakov, and acquitted him. "I believe that the court will demonstrate fairness and ensure the principle of adversarial proceedings so that the defendant can fully defend his position," Alexander Pentsakov's lawyer, Andrei Sukhorukov, told Kommersant, noting that the defendant has not yet heard the reasoning for the court's decision. He said that he has not received the decision.
According to Kommersant, the prosecutor's office plans to appeal the decision again.
Let us recall that the events that formed the basis of the criminal case against Alexander Pentsakov took place in Yalta in 2021. On April 22, the body of 47-year-old Deputy Director of Culture of Moscow Leonid Osharin was found with signs of violent death (several stab wounds to the chest, cuts to the hands) in a rented apartment in the city.
However, forensic expert with more than 20 years of experience, Alexander Pentsakov, for some reason indicated suicide as the culprit, reflecting in the death report the presence of wounds on the body of the deceased and the fact that the official died from severe bleeding. cause.
Specialist Alexander Pentsakov conducted two forensic medical examinations, and after the exhumation of Leonid Osharin's body, a third examination followed. Subsequently, the Investigative Committee questioned Alexander Pentsakov's findings, initiating a criminal case against him on the grounds of negligence and official falsification.
According to the investigation, the negligence of expert Alexander Pentsakov was expressed in the fact that during the autopsy he violated the established procedure for conducting forensic medical examinations of corpses and, realizing this, decided to commit official falsification. In two reports, he stated that the entire procedure was carried out strictly in accordance with the protocols and orders of the Ministry of Health. According to the Investigative Committee, for this reason the special prosecutor was unable to establish the cause of Mr. Osharin's death.
As part of the investigation of the criminal case against Alexander Pentsakov, experts from the Forensic and Criminalistics Specialized Center of the Ministry of Defense questioned the conclusion about suicide. Unlike their colleagues, who believed that the victim inflicted fatal wounds on himself with a knife, military doctors believed that it was done "by someone else's hands." However, as Alexander Pentsakov's lawyer claimed, "it was not possible to refute his conclusion about the cause of Leonid Osharin's death, based on the results of a comprehensive investigation."
Nevertheless, the Investigative Committee decided that the criminal case (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) on the fact of Mr. Osharin's murder was initiated untimely and the mistakes made by it are connected with the actions of Aleksandr Pentsakov. It not only did not allow to establish the true cause of death, but also "led to the fact that traces of the crime were irretrievably lost." It should be noted that the case of the waterman's death has not yet been solved.