The Lyubertsy City Court has set the date and time for the preliminary hearing in the criminal case of contract killings against the former governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal.
As reported by Interfax with reference to the press service of the court, the hearing will be held on February 21 at 11:00.
It is expected that during the meeting, the court, in particular, will decide on the measure of restraint for the duration of the trial, and will also determine the date for the start of the selection of jurors.
According to the law, the preliminary hearing in the case is held behind closed doors.
The decision that Furgal’s case will be considered by the Lyubertsy District Court of the Moscow Region in November last year was made by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. He agreed with the position of the prosecutor, who expressed confidence that due to Furgal’s “extensive circle of connections”, the consideration of his case in his native Khabarovsk Territory could be biased. Furgal himself said that the prosecutor’s office’s request to hold a court session in the Moscow region is “fictional, ordered and far-fetched”, and his lawyers saw political motives in it.
Recall that on July 9, 2020, it became known about the detention of the now former governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal, who, being a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party, took this post in 2018 thanks to a protest vote, defeating a candidate supported by the Kremlin. After that, mass unauthorized protests in support of Furgal began in the Khabarovsk Territory. Meanwhile, on July 20, the president signed a decree appointing Mikhail Degtyarev, Furgal’s colleague in the Liberal Democratic Party, as acting governor of the Khabarovsk Territory. In the elections held in September, Degtyarev won and became a full-fledged head of the region.
