Mikhail Trepashkin
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Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin, (Russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Трепа́шкин) (7 April 1957 – ) is a Moscow attorney and former FSB colonel who was invited by MP Sergei Kovalev to assist in an independent inquiry of the Russian apartment bombings in September 1999 – the atrocities that followed Dagestan war and were one of the triggers for the Second Chechen War that skyrocketed Vladimir Putin to presidency.
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[edit] His career in FSB
Trepashkin started working in KGB in 1984 as an investigator of underground trade in stolen art. In the beginning of 1990th Trepashkin moved to Internal Affairs department of FSB where he worked for Nikolai Patrushev. He investigated connections of FSB officers with criminal groups. He won a medal for intercepting a plane-load of weapons sold by FSB officers to Chechen rebels [1]
After making public allegations of corruption in FSB in 1996, Trepshkin became a target on the FSB hit list according to statements by Aleksandr Litvinenko and several other FSB officers. On 17 November 1998 he appeared as a planned assassination victim at a press conference in the Russian news agency Interfax, together with Litvinenko and others who claimed about creation of a death squad in a secret FSB department called URPO (the Division of Operations against Criminal Organizations). [1]
[edit] Investigation of Russian apartment bombings and imprisonment
Mikhail Trepashkin was invited by MP Sergei Kovalev to assist in an independent inquiry of the Russian apartment bombings. The inquiry led to nowhere because of the government stonewalling [1]. Then two sisters whose mother was killed in one of the houses hired Trepashkin to represent them in the trial of two Russian Muslims accused of transporting explosives for the bombings [2].
While preparing for the trial Trepashkin uncovered a trail of a mysterious suspect whose description had disappeared from the files. To his amazement, the man turned out to be one of his former FSB colleagues. He also found a witness who testified that evidence was doctored to lead the investigation away from incriminating the FSB [3].
But Trepashkin never managed to air his findings in court. On October 22, 2003, just a week before the hearings, a gun was allegedly planted into his car, and he ended up behind bars. However, before his arrest he told his story to a Moscow journalist [4].
The gun charge was thrown out by a Moscow appeals court[5], but Trepashkin was convicted by a closed military court to four years for "disclosing state secrets" [6]. [In September 2005 after serving two years of his sentence, Trepashkin was released on parole, but two weeks later was re-arrested after the State appealed the parole decision [7].
The case of Mikhail Trepashkin caught the attention of the Western press [8], caused an uproar among human rights campaigners [9], was put on record by Amnesty International, mentioned by the US State Department [10] and even featured in an award-winning documentary Disbelief[11].
Mikhail Trepashkin suffered from asthma with bronchial attacks on a daily basis, itching dermatosis and pain in the area of his heart, and he needed medical treatment. However, he was denied medical treatment, held in a freezing punishment cell, and transported with imprisoned tuberculosis patients who "were coughing right into your face because they were unable to either cover their mouths or turn away", according to Amnesty International [12]
In November 30, 2007 Mikhail Trepashkin was freed with the expiration of his four-year prison term. [13]
[edit] Involvement in Alexander Litvinenko affair
Trepashkin wrote in a letter from prison that an FSB team had organised in 2002 to kill Alexander Litvinenko. He also reported FSB plans to kill relatives of Litvinenko in Moscow in 2002, although these have not been carried out [14].[2][3] He was going to visit Litvinenko in London on a request from the FSB, but he was denied entrance visa by the UK.
Trepashkin's supervisers and people from the FSB promised not to send him to the prison if only he leaves the Sergei Kovalev commission and start working with the FSB "against Litvinenko" [4]
He also said that according to his FSB sources, "everyone who was involved in publication of book Blowing up Russia will be killed", and that three FSB agents have made a trip to Boston to prepare the assassination of historian Yuri Felshtinsky [5]
[edit] Family life
Trepashkin is married for the second time. He has two young children and a son from the first marriage.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. "Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB." Free Press, New York, 2007. ISBN 978-1416551652.
- ^ (Russian)М. Трепашкин: «Создана очень серьезная группа». Chechen Press State News Agency (1 December 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-01.
- ^ (Russian)Березовский и УРПО / дело Литвиненко. "Агентура.Ру" (November 27, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-11-30.
- ^ Interview with Mikhail Trepashkin, RFE/RL, December 1, 2007. Russian: "давай вместе работать против Литвиненко и уйди из комиссии по взрывам домов и тогда тебя никто не тронет. Я говорил со своими шефами, совершенно точно, тебя не тронут. Кончай с Ковалевым Сергеем Адамовичем контактировать в Госдуме и так далее."
- ^ Interview with Mikhail Trepashkin, RFE/RL, December 1, 2007. Russian "все, кто причастен к выпуску книги «ФСБ взрывает Россию», будут уничтожены, и что выехала в Штаты группа из трех человек, сотрудников федеральной службы безопасности ... по месту жительства Фельштинского в город Бостон."
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Trepashkin Case
- Human Rights First - call for action
- International Commission of Jurists - Trepashkin statement
- Text of D.C. Bar International Law Section letter
- Amnesty International appeal
- Letters of Trepashkin from prison (Russian)
- The Trepashkin Case in Novaya Gazeta (Russian)
- Mikhail Trepashkin and Sergei Abeltsev on RTVi TV channel: Part1 Part2 Part3 Part4 (Russian)
