New lawyer asked for a suspended sentence for Yefremov

The lawyer asks Yefremov to replace the eight years of real imprisonment appointed by the court for four years of suspended imprisonment.

"The defender asks to cancel or change the court's verdict, to impose a sentence on the convicted person in the form of imprisonment for up to 4 years, which should be considered conditional", - RIA Novosti reports, citing the court's press service.

As previously reported, on September 8, 2020, the Presnensky Court of Moscow sentenced Yefremov to eight years in a general regime colony and deprived him of his driver's license for three years. In addition, the artist will have to pay compensation of 800 thousand rubles to the injured party.

A fatal accident involving theater and film actor Mikhail Yefremov occurred on the Garden Ring in Moscow on June 8. According to the investigation, the 56-year-old artist, being intoxicated, after leaving the bar got behind the wheel of a Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV, lost control and drove into the oncoming lane, where he collided with a Lada. The online store courier Sergey Zakharov, who was driving an oncoming car, died in hospital from his injuries.

In court, Yefremov's defender Elman Pashayev argued that it was not Yefremov who was driving the SUV, but another person. However, the court did not accept these arguments and handed down a guilty verdict to the artist. After the witnesses for the defense were suspected of giving false testimony, the Ministry of Justice demanded to deprive Pashayev of the status of a lawyer, and Yefremov refused his services.

Nevertheless, Pashayev managed to send an appeal against the sentence to Yefremov. Along with Vasiliyev, Roman Filippov , an employee of the Russian Lawyers Company, joined the further protection of Yefremov's interests.