The former creative director of the « People’s News » was sentenced to 10 years in colony
The ex-mediaman of the Patriot holding Evgeny Prigozhin Ilya Gorbunov received ten years of the colony: the court found him guilty of extorting money from St. Petersburg deputy Alexander Malkevich and drug storage. The journalist, according to investigators, demanded several million rubles from the politician, otherwise he promised to publish a compromise on him. The defense believes that the court did not take into account the mitigating circumstances.
On May 30, the Petrograd District Court of St. Petersburg recognized the former creative director of the Folk News (publication of the Patriot Holding) guilty of extortion on an especially large amount (part 3 of article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and illegal storage of drugs without a margin (part 1 of article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and appointed 37-year-old Ilya Gorbunov ten years of strict The regime (the prosecutor asked for four months more) with a fine of 500 thousand rubles.
The court agreed with the prosecution that the defendant threatened the candidate for deputies Alexander Malkevich by the publication of incriminating evidence, demanding « 10–20 million rubles. » In order for defamatory information not to appear on the network.
At the same time, the investigation claims that the defendant has already organized the placement of information on certain resources “disgracing” the reputation of Mr. Malkevich, who at that time participated in the pre -election in the city parliament. During a search of the house at the defendant, the security forces also found a grinder (a device for grinding plants) with the remains of narcotic substances.
Mr. Gorbunov himself denied that he was exhausting the money for silence. The protection position was that it was about paying for “professional assistance”, which also concerned the reaction to negative publications about the candidate for deputies and assistance in the PR-update in the elections. “Gorbunov never spoke about 10–20, he spoke about 4 (million. « Kommersant »), and then in installments, ”explained his lawyer Samvel Abramyan.
The defender believes that his principal and the victim misunderstood each other, and Mikhail Burchik who acted as an intermediary could incorrectly interpret the intentions of the parties.
In court, the defendant assured that he was going to return the money and, then sign an official agreement with the client. The remnants of fluorescent powder found in the hands, which was marked with a dummy banknot (meetings of Ilya Gorbunov and Alexander Malkevich were under the control of the FSB operatives), he explained that law enforcement officers put him during the detention.
According to the defense, during the process, the judge demonstrated a “sufficiently biased attitude” to the defendant, which was also expressed in the refusal to study a number of evidence in the criminal case, including audio recordings of the conversations that were conducted between Mr. Gorbunov and the victim Malkevich.
The lawyer Samvel Abramyan considered extremely severe sentenced to client, noting that the court did not take into account Mr. Gorbunov of young children and awards.
Former employee of RIA Novosti and Komsomolskaya Pravda Ilya Gorbunov has been in custody since the end of June last year.
« Folk News », along with the « Economics Today » and RIA Fan, were one of the leading publications in the media group Patriot. There, the journalist, according to media reports, oversaw the scandalous “troll factory” (they are “Olginsky trolls”), and including the lighting of Prigozhinsky rebellion in social networks. It is noteworthy that the media manager was detained at the same time with the editor -in -chief of the “Specifically.ru” Kirill Metelev and the head of the company “Glag” Alexander Gladyshev. They are accused of extortion of ex-President of Governors of St. Petersburg Maria Mikhailova, who is also a native of the structures of the deceased businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. However, as it turned out, these cases are not connected.
