Witnesses on Zavadsky’s Case Never Show Up in Court :: Charter'97 :: News

For some unclear reasons the key witnesses on ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky’s disappearance case never showed up in court. The lawyers believe that witnesses aren’t willing to give testimony which would contradict the investigation. There unexpectedly emerged difficulties in the court proceedings over Valery Ignatovich and his accomplices. Today the judges intended to find out the origin of the spade, which had been allegedly discovered in Ignatovich’s car trunk, containing “fragments of Dmitry’s Zavadsky’s biological material”.

The jury was supposed to cross-examine the witnesses, who allegedly saw how the detectives found the spade in Ignatovich’s car. Why does it interest the judges so much? Radio Svaboda reports that they found out a few contradictive facts when studying this key evidence – a spade, one of them being the length of the object in question.

After the first inspection of Ignatovich’s vehicle there had been made no mention of the spade. However, it is further recorded in the inspection protocol, while missing on the snapshot of the material evidence.

To clarify this and other substantial discrepancies the jury summoned to court the witnesses. However, all three witnesses never turned up there without even informing the court as to the reason for their absence. The attorneys consider this fact to be very suspicious. They don’t rule out the possibility that the witnesses don’t wish to give testimony, which would contradict the conclusions of the investigators on Ignatovich’s key role in abducting Zavadsky. At the same time the lawyers have little doubt that the former “Almaz” fighter is linked to Zavadsky’s abduction. Some witnesses claim that they had seen Ignatovich’s red Volkswagen, parked near Zavadsky’s house days before his disappearance.

Nonetheless, the lawyers believe that the former riot policeman could well be tracking Zavadsky, being on some secondary mission. However, the investigation doesn’t answer the question who ordered Ignatovich to do that and what happened to Zavadsky. The lawyers admit that the investigators may well be unwilling to answer these questions. The witnesses’ failure to appear in court could be a sure sign that someone of influence is behind that seeking to lead the investigation astray.