Chernobyl liquidator turned Russian penitentiary boss commits suicide in Moscow courtroom
Viktor Sviridov, who formerly led the vehicular transport division of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), committed suicide on February 12 inside Moscow’s Chertanovsky District Court. He had just been sentenced in an extortion case. An RBC correspondent reporting from inside the courtroom said that Sviridov successfully smuggled a firearm into his sentencing hearing.
Sviridov was convicted of extorting 10 million rubles ($158,200) from former FSIN Deputy Director Alexander Sapozhnikov. The sentence given in the case was three years in a prison colony.
According to the Telegram-based news outlet Mash, Sviridov had stage four cancer. MBK Media reported that he worked as a liquidator following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster; both the defense and the victim’s representatives requested leniency in his case. The Moscow City Court emphasized following Sviridov’s death that the sentence he received was lower than the seven-year minimum provided for in Russian extortion laws.
Another Telegram-based outlet, Baza, wrote that Sviridov was able to bring a pistol into the courtroom because the metal detector at the entrance to the building wasn’t working (Moscow City Court representatives asserted that it was, in fact, operational). A bailiff searched Sviridov manually but found only a flask filled with alcohol in his pocket. Baza hypothesized that the former prison official might have brought the flask with him intentionally to ward off any further search that might have unearthed the pistol. Open Media wrote that security services for the Chertanovsky District Court are provided by a private company called “Cossack Guard” that is associated with the Central Cossack Troops. However, the news website added that bailiffs search all visitors as they enter the courtroom.
While his case was under consideration, Sviridov was not held under guard or house arrest, but his ability to travel outside Moscow was restricted. He pleaded not guilty. According to Mash, the court declined to order a phonographic analysis of an audio recording in which Sviridov allegedly extorted Sapozhnikov. The defendant’s attorney told Interfax that he believed Sviridov’s suicide was a reaction to his sentence, noting that his legal team was expecting an acquittal.
In the wake of the hearing, Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal negligence case.
Story by Grigory Levchenko
Translation by Hilah Kohen