Court arrested ex-Inter RAO board member Tsurkan on basis of 'empty' materials - lawyer
MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax) - The defense team has found no documents confirming former Inter RAO board member Karina Tsurkan's involvement in espionage in the case materials which investigators presented at the court when calling for her arrest, her lawyer, Team 29 leader Ivan Pavlov, told Interfax.
"We were finally able to look at the materials for arrest in Tsurkan's case and found that they are empty. What does it mean? It means that the judge, who imposed a restrictive measure on Karina, should have received some documents proving the charges brought against her, the validity of suspicion, but she had no such documents," Pavlov said.
Tsurkan was charged with receiving "some document from a source still unknown even to the defense team and handing it over to intelligence services of a foreign country, Moldova," he said.
"It is important that the essence of the charge is that she received something and delivered it somewhere, that's what constitutes the content of the crime. But the case does not include any document indicating that Tsurkan received something and handed something over. Investigators usually present such documents to the court, but there are none here," Pavlov said.
The materials for arrest do not even include documents confirming that Tsurkan holds dual citizenship, he said.
"For that reason, we are planning to appeal her arrest with the presidium of the Moscow City Court," Pavlov said.
Tsurkan was charged with espionage. Moscow's Lefortovo District Court sanctioned her arrest, and she is currently at a pre-trial detention facility. On June 25, the Moscow City Court upheld the ruling on her arrest.
Tsurkan denies all wrongdoing and believes that the case "was opened because they decided to remove her from her position because of her principles and integrity," her lawyer said.