NO SUPPLEMENTARY INVESTIGATION TO FOLLOW: IT IS UNNECESSARY

0
308

Andrei Gavrilenko Krasnaya Zvezda, August 14, 2003, p. 1

In the words of Pavel Demidenko, Colonel of Justice, over 1,500 witnesses had been questioned during the 23 months of the investigation, over 200 complicated examinations were carrried out, and over 8,000 various objects were investigated. All of this has enabled the preliminary investigation bodies to arrive at the unambiguous conclusion about an immediate reason for the submarine’s wreck.

As reported by Interfax, Pavel Demidenko stressed that the criminal case has been stopped because components of crime are unavailable. According to a forensic examination, following explosions and the subsequent fire, the submariners had lived for eight hours at the most. “Taking any measures to rescue the crew during this period was beyond the fleet comand’s ability,” the colonel stressed.

In this connection, the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office (MMPO) made a statement claiming announcements of attorney Boris Kuznetsov, representing interests for relatives of submariners who had died on board the Kursk submarine, as unfounded and unsubstantiated. Referring to some research of independent foreign experts he has lately disagreed with conclusions of the official investigation, the prosecutor’s office has accomplished. In his interview for the Guardian, the attorney said that about 40 families of the perished submariners whose interests he had been representing intend to demand that the prosecutor’s office resume the investigation At the same time, the civil action Kuznetsov had claimed against officials of the MMPO and the journalists was left unconsidered due to serious legal faults. Despite Kuznetsov’s repeated statements that he disagrees with conclusions of the investigation in the case of the Kursk, the MPPO has received no solicitation since the start of 2003.

Irina Lyachina, the widow to the killed submarine commander has also opposed an additional investigation. In her opinion, “the government and everybody involved in the investigation have done their best.” Irina Lyachina thinks demanding the impossible will not do anything.

LEAVE A REPLY