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'They thought that a hooligan was driving': what the witnesses told at the trial in the Efremov case

'07.08.2020'

Source: with the BBC

On August 6, in the Presnensky Court of Moscow, a second hearing was held in the case of Mikhail Efremov, who is accused of a fatal road accident. with the BBC.

Screenshot: Russia 24 / YouTube

If on the eve, on August 5, the court interrogated the traffic police officers, then on August 6 testimony was given by simple eyewitnesses who appeared at the scene of the accident a few minutes later.

They said that the driver Mikhail Zakharov was conscious after the collision, and Efremov could hardly stand on his feet. As on the first day of the trial, the parties focused on the main question: whether the actor was driving his car.

The second day of the trial of Efremov began with the delay of the actor's lawyer, Elman Pashayev. During the work on the case, he has already managed to make several high-profile statements: for example, about the innocence of his client, about the fact that in the actor's apartment there is a portrait of Vladimir Putin, to whom he allegedly “treats well,” and even that the text of the video with the apology Efremov did not write himself.

Not only judge Elena Abramova, known in the case of footballers Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamaev, but also the lawyers of the victims, were dissatisfied with the delay of Pashayev. Lawyer Anna Butyrina, representing the interests of the wife of the deceased Zakharov, asked to reprimand her opponent. Pashayev, smiling, called her “his assistant”.

The skirmish between lawyers on this topic was periodically renewed during the entire session: the lawyers demanded to remove each other's questions and complained to the judge.

“You teach a person, and then it starts,” Pashayev sighed.

During the break, Butyrina told the audience that she really worked with Pashayev, but left the partnership after a case was opened against him: “In 2018, he was accused of extortion (Article 163 of the Criminal Code) due to fraudulent actions, including against me. Then they retrained for arbitrariness, gave a suspended year. Many people wonder how in less than three years he restored his status, having received it in North Ossetia ”.

In a conversation with the BBC, Butyrina criticized Efremov's line of defense, which is trying to convince the court that there is no sufficient evidence to prove that the actor was driving on the day of the accident.

“It is obvious that both the examinations and the witnesses say the opposite,” she said.

The witnesses questioned at the meeting really told the court that they had not seen other participants in the accident at the accident site except for Efremov himself and Mikhail Zakharov.

“I thought there was a bully behind the wheel”

The most striking on the second day of the trial was the interrogation of Vladislav Zhenzhebir, who saw with his own eyes the moment of the collision of Efremov's SUV and Zakharov's “Lada”. The actor's car emerged from the alley on the Garden Ring directly in front of the car driven by the witness.

“A car flew out towards me. I can't say that the traffic was loaded. It seemed to me that the man at the wheel was behaving in a boorish way. I took emergency braking. For me it was not very critical, but if I had not increased the distance, I would have crashed. Then the situation repeated itself again: he slowed down, I again took emergency braking, ”the witness said.

Later, he said that he did not suspect that the driver of the car could be drunk: “I thought that he was driving a hooligan… I still looked closely at the license plate to understand whether he was a thug or not a thug.”

A minute later, Efremov's car crashed into Zakharov's car. Zhenzhebir and comrade Roman, who was traveling with him, got out of the car to help the victims. Soon after, Efremov “asked for a cigarette, at first with gestures”: “My friend gave him a cigarette and said,“ man, you almost killed us now. ”

Vladislav Zhenzhebir. Screenshot: Russia 24 / YouTube

“I saw from the back how the driver was helped out of the car. At first it seemed to me that there were two people ... ”- this phrase of the witness about the first seconds after the accident gave rise to a long discussion with the participation of defenders about who was in the car and drove it.

Zhenzhebir explained that at first he really got the impression that there were two people, but then, “having analyzed”, he realized that he was mistaken: there were no other victims at the scene of the accident.

“He couldn’t run away immediately after such a serious accident, people would have seen him ... but all around they said only:“ Efremov, this is Efremov! ” - explained the witness. Other eyewitnesses, according to Zhenzhebir, also pointed to Efremov as the driver.

On the subject: Not only Efremov: accidents involving stars in which people died

Zhenzhebir explained to Pashayev that he had discussed the topic of the second passenger with the investigator.

“He explained to me that they were looking for other passengers in order to possibly shift the blame,” said the witness. Later he recalled that while watching the video in the investigator's office he saw an unknown woman “holding her head,” but decided that she was not in the car.

"Unsteady gait, indistinct speech"

The witness spoke unequivocally about Efremov's condition after the accident: “As a person who has not been drinking for six years, I can definitely say ... out of ten signs of drunkenness, there was only one - fume, because I was not very close. Fuzzy speech, overwhelmed, no coordination. I'm not a doctor. But I can say that the person was in a state of strong alcoholic intoxication. "

Efremov was also considered drunk by Kirill Pukhov, an employee of the bar where the actor often visited and where he went shortly before the accident. Due to fears for the actor, the bartender, according to him, even took him home, and along the way helped him buy him beer and cigarettes.

The same impression was formed by Anna Ordyan, who was driving along Sadovoye during the accident and ended up at the accident site a few minutes later.

Anna Ordyan. Screenshot: Russia 24 / YouTube

“His gait was disturbed, he did not stand firmly on his feet, even when the police were leading him. Unsteadily stood on his feet, - the girl recalled. "They said he was driving."

Ordyan, a doctor by profession, decided to help Zakharov who was stuck in the car.

"After the accident, he was still alive, conscious." The girl asked those around her not to try to pull the driver out of the mangled car: “we didn't know what state he was in, what state his spine was in.”

As a result, eyewitnesses unsuccessfully tried to bend the pieces of metal that had trapped the driver with their bare hands. The witness said that the lower part of his torso was completely blocked - of the injuries she noticed only bloody hands. Only specialists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations were able to extract Zakharov from the truck with the help of special equipment.

Ordyan noticed Efremov himself only when the police officers took him to the patrol car. Prior to that, he sat in the back seat of his car “and seems to have smoked”. For 15 minutes the lawyers of both sides tried to find out in what position Efremov was sitting, how he got into the car and which car doors were open, but the witness did not remember these details. Zhenzhebir did not even remember that Efremov returned to the car after the accident.

On the subject: 'Started drinking from the age of 13': childhood friend Mikhail Efremov spoke about the actor’s dependence

The court also interrogated Marina Gerasimenko, who saw the accident from the window (she did not give a lot of details), and the experts who carried out the examination of the car after the accident. Electrician Igor Fetisov, in particular, explained to the court that the airbag, which worked in the passenger seat, could open even in the absence of a person in the front seat - its operation does not mean that there was someone else in the car.

Efremov himself, during the interrogation of witnesses, thoughtfully looked out the window, leisurely wrote something on a sheet of paper and did not ask the eyewitnesses any questions. Towards the end of the meeting, the journalists were allowed to the judge's table so that they could watch the video. Thanks to this, reporters noticed that all this time Efremov was drawing: balloons, a tower that looked like a Kremlin one, a grate and other symbols.

"Maybe the passenger ducked"

The discussion of the theory of protection that Efremov was not driving during the accident continued after a short break. As it turned out, there was a small scuffle in the broadcast hall during it: supporters of Efremov, who believe that the actor could have been set up, began to grab his hands and eventually knocked down the correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda. The women were taken out of the court.

In the courtroom, meanwhile, gathered to study the video recordings attached to the case - all of them in the case for about seven hours. A huge plasma screen was brought into the hall especially for this purpose. It turned out that most of the video recordings, due to technical problems, are reproduced without sound.

First, Judge Abramova watched the video from the surveillance camera on the Garden Ring. Then - still without sound - she surveyed the recordings made by Zhenzhiber - they show Efremov sitting on the sidewalk with disheveled hair.

The judge wished to listen to the audio track separately from the laptop.

“Drunk in sh ** but ... I almost shook us ... There is the actor Efremenko, there he is sitting. Tin ”, - spread in the hall.

After that, participants watched two videos from the recorders. The windshield of Efremov's SUV was visible on both of them, but the prosecution and lawyers were unable to examine the potential passenger.

“Maybe he ducked,” the actor quietly commented.

After that, the court again announced a break - the judge did not want to watch the next video, the recording from the police recorder, more than 20 minutes long, without sound. Court staff tried painfully to connect the speakers to the TV, then the laptop of one of the correspondents. As a result, they decided to watch the notes on the computer at the judge's table, around which all participants in the process crowded.

The journalists ended up hearing only the sound:

⁃ Is your last name?

⁃ Efremov.

⁃ What's your name?

⁃ Michael.

⁃ Have you drunk?

⁃ Yes.

⁃ Were you alone?

⁃ ...

⁃ Why are you driving drunk!

Another video recorded the search for Efremov's documents and communication with attesting witnesses. On the next - the actor's medical examination.

“We need to blow into the tube,” the policeman turned to him. But the result of the examination of the police did not suit - the breathalyzer showed only 0,142 grams per liter. "

It is necessary to blow longer, we cannot do it, ”the police officer said disappointedly.

“When he blew, the mistake came out,” the voice of another colleague is heard on the recording. Efremov was eventually offered to go to a doctor for examination.

“I am guilty,” the actor himself answered drawnly.

“Pay attention, he says this exactly when alcohol is being discussed,” Pashayev commented on this.

After watching the video with the doctor's examination, the prosecutor explained that she wanted to show it in full, because Efremov had said before that he did not remember what was happening.

- Maybe he remembered, - suggested the prosecutor.

“No, I didn’t remember,” snapped Efremov.

Lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky, defending the Zakharov family, asked Efremov if he recognized himself in the video.

On the subject: She left a successful Frenchman and married Efremov: the story of the relationship between the actor and his fifth wife

“With difficulty ... You know, it's premature to say. This is Mr. Hyde, "the actor replied, apparently referring to the novel by Robert Stevenson" The Strange Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ", in which the respectable Dr. Jekyll periodically falls into the power of the dark side of his personality -" Mr. Hyde "- and does atrocities.

Efremov did not answer other questions.

What is already known about the case

An accident involving Efremov occurred on the evening of June 8. Lada truck driver Mikhail Zakharov died the next day after the accident at the N.I. Sklifosovsky from multiple injuries and blood loss.

Efremov was charged under point “a” of part 4 of article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of traffic rules, resulting in the death of a person by negligence). The punishment for her is from five to 12 years in prison. The actor is now under house arrest.

According to the results of the medical examination in the dispensary, Efremov was found to have a strong degree of intoxication - about 1,05 ppm, the inspector of the 6th DPS battalion Alexander Kozlov told the court on the first day of the trial. It was he who asked Efremov to “blow” into the tube.

Kozlov said in court that, according to eyewitnesses, it was Efremov who was driving. His colleague Pavel Markeyanov confirmed this, adding that at the scene of the accident the actor “repented”: “Mikhail Olegovich himself explained that he was alone in the car, there was no one with him”.

According to the materials of the case, which were read out by the prosecution, Efremov's sweat marks were found on the driver's airbag of the jeep. And his urine contains traces of drugs, including cannabinoids.

Efremov himself announced at the meeting that he did not admit his guilt: “How can I admit guilt if I don’t remember anything.”

At the same time, on June 12, a video message from Efremov was published, in which he admitted that he got drunk behind the wheel, apologized to the family of the deceased Zakharov and promised not to try to avoid responsibility.

Original article published on the site with the BBC.

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