Mikhail Trepashkin and the apartment bombings

Statement of the Moscow group for the investigation of the events of September 1999

Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin was detained on October 22 — a week before the start of hearings in the Moscow City Court on the apartment bombings.

The issue of his arrest on charges of a crime from the category of serious ones — disclosure of state secrets — had been considered by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office since the spring. But he was arrested on another charge — possession of a pistol. We are convinced that this charge is falsified and that Trepashkin's arrest is linked specifically to the bombings case.

We know of several cases of obvious planting of weapons on our Chechen and Ingush acquaintances. They are trying to charge Trepashkin himself with illegal possession of weapons for the fourth time already.

The investigation of the bombings became an actual investigation, rather than just reading others' publications, only thanks to Trepashkin. Mikhail pointed out the methodology through which the search for witnesses became possible. He presented the first information he found himself to all three groups investigating the events: Felshtinsky, Kovalev, and us. Subsequently, using his methodology, our group and Yuri Felshtinsky obtained very important results, in our view.

We declare that weighty evidence of FSB involvement in the organization of the apartment bombings has been found.

1. An anonymous prediction about the bombing of "three houses in residential areas of Moscow" originated from the FSB. Three houses were indeed mined: two were blown up, one (on Borisovskie Prudy Street) they managed to defuse.
2. A connection was found between the firm that helped register the firm of the main accused — Gochiyayev — and for which he was not an ordinary client, and a firm belonging to a major Moscow criminal group. Many authors, including the recently deceased Yuri Shchekochikhin, have written about the links between this group and the FSB over various years.

(These and other results are contained in our group's report at www.somnenie.narod.ru/bl/obzor2.html).

Mikhail Trepashkin initiated other search directions as well.

As the official defender of one of the victims, Trepashkin was supposed to participate in the trial that began on October 31 in the Moscow City Court. He was not allowed preliminary access to the criminal case file. It is clear that Trepashkin's participation in the trial is dangerous for those who fear an objective investigation of the events.

The trial on the apartment bombings must be open (terrorists and law enforcement agencies should not have joint secrets from the public), and a lawyer who has a legal right to this and knows the circumstances of the events better than others must be allowed to participate in it. For this, Mikhail Trepashkin must be released.

Lyudmila Evstifeeva,
Evgeny Frumkin