Shamychek repeats once again that during the investigation she was pressured into stating that she gave 11,000 dollars to Bandazhevsky. At the time of her arrest, no-one explained her rights to her. This was only done three days later. Until then she had been questioned without a lawyer present.
She was questioned by different people, including Alexandrov who questioned her between eleven o’clock at night and two in the morning. Another interrogation had lasted until four in the morning.
After her arrest, she was put into a small cell with five other detainees. The window did not open.
There were no chairs.
She had to sit on the ground (she is 60 and has worked for forty three years as a teacher).
She asked to see a doctor continually. Morning, midday and evening she asked to be given Validol: she suffers from ischemia, arterial sclerosis and chronic gastritis. She was given no medical aid. She only had the medicines that her daughter was able to bring in.
She spent thirty days in detention. After she left, they discovered she had focal tuberculosis. Sometimes, she was interrogated by six people at a time who threatened her with their fists, and banged a metal ruler on the table: “They threatened to put me in a cell and burst my liver”.
When Bandazhevsky asks: “Can you confirm that you were forced to state that you gave me 11,000 dollars?” she replies: “Yes, I was forced to say it but it wasn’t true. I was in such a state that I would have said anything”.
The presiding judge asks the lawyer Baranov to withdraw the question: “Do you clearly remember having given the money?” He also asks him to withdraw a question about the sum given. Baranov claims that he is being prevented from questioning the accused.
Bandazhevsky asks Shamychek if she had been given the psychotropic drug, Phenosipan. She replies in the affirmative.
Following a request from the prosecution, the minutes of the interrogation on 17th July 1999 are read out in which it is stated that Shamychek refused the services of a lawyer. Shamychek responds that they had started the interrogation, and that this item had been added in to the minutes afterwards. She never refused the services of a lawyer.
THE ACCUSED E.D. ZHELEZNIAKOVA AND HER DAUGHTER T.S. ZHELEZNIAKOVA
At 15:25 hrs, the prosecution begins their cross-examination of 58 year old E.D. Zhelezniakova.
She was held in detention for three months. She was accused of corruption: it was alleged that she had offered a bribe of 3000 dollars so that her grandchild could be accepted into the medical institute. She denies bribery. She was arrested on 3rd January 2000 at the canteen where she works as director. Her daughter was also arrested without being given any explanation. She was in police custody for six hours.
She was interrogated in a small room by three police officers. They were smoking and blew smoke into her face. There was no lawyer present. They placed her in a cell with twelve other people. She spent three days and three nights on the floor of the cell without any blankets. The pre-trial investigation had shown no interest in her case for two months. “Two months later, the examining magistrate Terekhovich came to see me and said that my detention pending trial could be shortened if I confessed”. She suffers from bladder stones, cardiac insufficiency and a thyroid cyst. From 24th March to 18th May 2000, she received treatment in hospital, where she was transferred after she lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness in hospital she saw that she was handcuffed to the bed. After leaving police custody she was declared an invalid. The case collapsed.
Next, it is the turn of T.S. Zhelezniakova (daughter of the last witness), also accused of having offered a bribe to get her daughter admitted to medical school. She denies the charge.
She went to the police station after receiving a telephone call. It was at the police station that she was arrested. They used force and put her in handcuffs after she refused to confess, as the investigating judge proposed in exchange for letting her go. When she refused she was incarcerated with twelve other prisoners. For two months, she slept on the floor in a corridor where there was not enough room to put a mattress. People walked on top of her. Between 8th October and 3rd February 2000 she was not questioned, and she had no access to a lawyer. “They threatened to leave me there for five years if I did not confess that I had offered a bribe, and I did not receive any paper, nor a comb, nor any bedding throughout the time I was there and not being questioned”.
Afterwards, she sent five letters of complaint to the regional prosecutor. None of her complaints reached their destination. In November 1999, the investigating judge told her that she would soon be interrogated. “Soon” turned out to be 3rd February 2000.
The hearing is adjourned at 17:15 hrs. It will resume on 1st March 2001 at 10:00 hrs.
THE ACCUSED RAVKOV
MINUTES FROM THE HEARING OF 1st MARCH.
10:10 hrs: the hearing begins. There are only six people in the room not participating in the trial.
Ravkov states: “On 12th July 1999 I was apprehended at 4:30 p.m. in the neurology department. Two policemen (they introduced themselves) grabbed me, twisted my arms, banged my head against their car, and handcuffed me before putting me in their vehicle.
They drove me to the regional prosecutor’s office. I demanded they explain the reasons for their actions. They gave no explanation. I demanded to be allowed to see a lawyer, my garrison head and the rector. They refused. From the regional prosecutor I was taken to the Office for the Prevention of Organised Crime. There, I was threatened. They gave me Bolotov’s statement to read, in which it was stated that I came to find him in his office on 23rd May and received the sum of 2,500 American dollars from him. The statement was dated 12th July 1999.
They demanded that I state that Bandazhevsky had set up a criminal organisation at the institute. They asked me to give marked banknotes to Bandazhevsky. If I did it, I would be freed. The proposal came from the investigating judge, Krugliakov.
I was interrogated by six men. They threw me into a cellar. It was hot. I asked them to give me some water, which they did. After I had drunk, I felt funny. Then I don’t remember anything. Everything became blurred. I found that funny, I kept laughing uncontrollably.
During the night I was taken to the institute, where they searched my two offices. At 4 o’clock in the morning they took me to the IVS (military detention centre). I felt sick. I started vomiting. I had pain in my liver. In 1987, I had viral hepatitis. I asked them to get a doctor. Their response was to ask me to confess. At midday, I had written everything they wanted: I had received money, I had handed it over to Bandazhevsky… I don’t remember everything I wrote. I have looked through six volumes from the case. My statement isn’t there. I spent ten days at the IVS.
The investigating judges threatened to put my wife in prison. The next day, the lawyer that my wife had employed was not allowed to see me. During the interrogation, the investigating judge, Alexandrov, was drunk. They had drunk the bottles that they had found in my car. Alexandrov told me that they were searching my house. That they had found 20,000 dollars. He put me on the phone to my wife. I could hear noises and my wife crying. Afterwards I promised I’d say anything they wanted as long as they left my family alone. At the detention centre, the interrogation lasted twenty two hours until 2 o’clock in the morning.
I had pain in my liver and I demanded to see a doctor. I wrote to the regional prosecutor through the investigating judge Alexandrov. They never allowed the lawyer to see me.
At the detention centre, they put me in a cell where there were 16 other detainees with eight beds. I lay either on the floor or on the bed for several days asking for medical help.
At the beginning of August, they did a blood test. They discovered that my liver was inflamed. My skin and my eyes had turned yellow.
During the eighteen months that I spent in detention, I only saw the investigating judge three times: at the end of September 19
99, when he asked me to confess in exchange for a shorter period in custody; in February 2000, when I was in a critical state, and could hardly walk. At the beginning of June 2000, he repeated his offer and said that I would stay in prison until I became an invalid”.
At 13.00 hrs, the court is adjourned until 14.00 hrs.
After the break, there are only four people in the courtroom, including myself and Bandazhevsky’s wife.
Ravkov continues: “During the interrogation they kept saying “You are just a pawn. Our main goal is to get Bandazhevsky; it’s him we need”.
Ravkov then says that during the year 2000, the death rate in Gomel and in the Gomel region exceeded the birth rate by 8,500. “Over the last five years the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular problems had doubled. Bandazhevsky had openly tried to convince (of their error) the ninety two scientists who had written to Gorbachev in 1989 to say that the tragedy at Chernobyl no longer posed any danger. The Institute of of Radiological Medicine and Endocrinology190 had conducted an experimental simulation: rats were exposed to radiation by X-ray imagining that in this way, they had created a model of the situation in the contaminated territories. Bandazhevsky did things differently: he got hold of grain from the contaminated territories and fed it to the animals. We proved that food from the contaminated territories is unfit for human consumption. I think this is the real reason for the legal action taken against Bandazhevsky”.
190 This is the institute whose work was criticised by the commission made up of Nesterenko, Stozharov and Bandazhevsky. See Part Three, Chapter III, starting on p. 197.
Ravkov points out that volume 11 of the dossier contains a “signal” (the document uses this word) from the vice-rector at the Institute of Medicine, Sokolovski, addressed to the secretary of the Security Council, Sheiman, informing him that Bandazhevsky was being bribed, that he had given out the codes of examination papers that the papers were coded by Ravkov and that everyone knew the exam questions. That Bandazhevsky had lost his head. That the institute was full of “enemies of the people” who, by publishing their papers and articles would bring about the downfall of the Belarusian people.
Sokolovski states a little later that the signature was not his. The document is not dated.
At about 16:00 hrs, Ravkov asks that the hearing be suspended to 2nd March because of his ill health. The president asks the opinion of the doctor who is in the courtroom; he confirms that Ravkov’s blood pressure is significantly higher than in the morning and that his request should be accepted.
The presiding judge announces an adjournment until 2nd March 2001 at 10.00 hrs.
MINUTES OF THE HEARING ON 2ND MARCH 2001
The prosecution’s cross-examination of Ravkov’s continues. To the question: “Did you ever give money to Bandazhevsky?” he replies “No, I never gave or received any sums of money”.
The prosecution reads out the minutes of Ravkov’s interrogation as a witness of 12th July 1999 in which he admits having received 2,500 and 1,500 dollars.
Ravkov retracts his confession explaining: “I was interrogated by the prosecutor Pavlova. During the interrogation they were in constant communication over the telephone with my apartment. I insist on the fact that there was a psychotropic drug in the water I was given to drink. In the state I was in, I would have confessed to anything. Over the last twelve years I have not had any problems with my hepatitis but after the interrogation, my health deteriorated rapidly”.
The prosecution reads out Ravkov’s statement to the regional prosecutor on 13th July 1999 (page 72–73, t. 38) where he voluntarily states that he received a bribe and expresses his regret. In the statement he says that in 1997 he had a conversation with Bandazhevsky in which “we decided to find parents who wanted their children to be given help with the admission exams and to ask them to pay”. Ravkov gives the sums and the names for the years 1997–1999. “I gave the whole sum directly to Bandazhevsky in his office”. There is a declaration in Ravkov’s hand at the bottom of the page saying that only these witness statements should be taken into account and that the statements he made on 12th July are not accurate.
Ravkov objects that this text was dictated to him. The judge asks him “Who asked you to dictate it?”, and he replies that he does not know the man, but he was short and had a moustache.
The prosecution reads out the minutes from the interrogation that took place on 13th July 1999, with the investigating judge Alexandrov. The time according to the minutes was: from 21.35 hrs to 02.00 hrs. The interrogation took place at the detention centre. (In fact Ravkov was only transferred to the detention centre ten days after his arrest on 12th July 1999). According to these minutes, Ravkov admits having been bribed. In 1998, three times with 4,900 dollars. He states that he took the money to help Bandazhevsky and he gave the programmes and the exam questions to people who wanted them. That the money was given to Bandazhevsky once the candidates had been admitted to the institute. He kept nothing for himself. In 1999, he allegedly gave Bandazhevsky 6,900 dollars, a total of 11,800 dollars: “From 1997, in total, I received 11,800 dollars”. To a question posed by Alexandrov: “Was the sum that you were going to hand over to Bandazhevsky agreed on in advance?” The minutes record that Ravkov replied in the affirmative.
In the witness box, Ravkov states that the interrogation did not take place in the detention centre. He gave them the figure of 11,800 dollars after he had been put on the phone to his apartment and he heard his wife crying. He had been pressured. There had been no agreement with Bandazhevsky. The statement from the witness Bolotov that stated that Ravkov had received the money from him at work could not be true because 23rd May was a Sunday, a public holiday.
The prosecution reads out the minutes of the confrontation between Ravkov and Bandazhevsky that took place on 15th July 1999, at the military detention centre with the investigating judge Alexandrov. In the minutes it says that Ravkov and Bandazhevsky refused to have a lawyer. Ravkov states that he gave Bandazhevsky the list of names and the money, that Bandazhevsky knew he was being bribed and that he himself had given the sums and the dates.
Reply from Bandazhevsky: “That is not true”.
In the witness box Ravkov explains that before the confrontation, they had spent three hours telling him what he needed to say. “I hadn’t eaten, or slept for five days”, he says. So of course, he capitulated to all their demands.
The prosecution reads the minutes from the interrogation that took place on 19th July 1999. The investigating judge: Alexandrov. From 10.00 a.m to 11.30 a.m. According to the minutes, Ravkov gave some of the money to Bandazhevsky, as they had agreed, and that these were bribes.
In the witness box Ravkov explains that he had not been allowed a lawyer, that he was shown the lists, that he was told that if he refused to testify they would carry on interrogating him all night, and that he gave these testimonies when he was extremely ill.
The prosecution reads out the minutes from the interrogation that took place on 21st July 1999. Investigating judge: Alexandrov. According to the minutes, Ravkov confesses his guilt on all counts. He was taking bribes, and this was at Bandazhevsky’s instigation. He gives the sums and the dates.
In the witness box, Ravkov retracts these statements and says that he was in such a state that he did not care about anything.
At the request of the prosecution, there now follows a confrontation between the two accused, Ravkov and Khomchenko. The prosecution asks Khomchenko, for each of the episodes concerning her and Ravkov, to confirm the statements she made during the preliminary investigation and whether she still stands by them. Khomchenko replies in the affirmative for each episode. Ravkov himself denies having received or given any money.
The prosecution tries to pose questions on this subject to Bandazhevsky. But the presiding judge does not allow it, as Bandazhevsky was not part of the confrontation.
Baranov, Bandazhevsky’s lawye
r, asks Khomchenko (he does not have the right but the judge allows it) “The prosecution has asked you to confirm all these questions and you have done so. Have you made some kind of deal with the prosecution?”
She replies that she is not confirming her statements for all of the indictments and does not stand by all of them.
Therefore from a legal point of view, the result of the confrontation has almost no significance.
MINUTES OF THE HEARING ON MARCH 19TH 2001
The hearing begins: 10.15 hrs. Cross examination of V. Ravkov.
To the question from the defence “Did the people who arrested you know your military grade?” (lieutenant colonel), the reply is in the affirmative. Ravkov then tells them that a week before his arrest an attempt was made to corrupt him: he was offered a bribe. After his arrest, his home was searched without an official search warrant.
Ravkov comments on the lack of objectivity in Khomchenko’s statements. He says that this woman had been treated in detention the same way as he had and knowing this, it should be obvious that she would say anything to avoid any repetition of that experience. Ravkov reiterates that he never took any money from Khomchenko.
Cross-examination of Ravkov is over. The presiding judge adjourns the proceedings until 14.00 hrs.
The hearing begins again at 14.10 hrs. The presiding judge reads Bandazhevsky his rights.
The prosecution: “Begin from the time when you became director of the institute”. Bandazhevsky explains that in 1990 the Minister of Health of the Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), of Belarus Kozakov, suggested that he organise and become director of a medical institute.
“Forty per cent of the staff at the institute were specialists from Gomel and the Gomel region. There were no other staff to be found elsewhere. At the time, the country was in a state of collapse. At the beginning, we invited staff from Grodno, Vitebsk and from Russia. We even considered closing the institute at one time because of staff shortages. So we set about training specialists from the staff at our disposal.
The Crime of Chernobyl- The Nuclear Gulag Page 65
