The appeal overturned the verdict in the scandalous case of cleaning the reserve in Kamchatka

The Kamchatka Regional Court overturned the decision of a lower instance against four employees of the Kronotsky Reserve, who were accused of embezzling more than 450 million rubles. The scandalous case will be sent to a new trial. As the ex-director of zapovdenik, Pyotr Shpilenok, said in his telegram channel e, the defendants will leave the pre-trial detention center today.

"The appeals Board has released our colleagues Oksana Terekhova, Daria Panicheva, Roman Korchigin, people are now with their families and will return to work", - he said, - "we have all burned out during this time, we are tired of fighting, proving that people did their duty and are not to blame. They were held hostage by the death of the former director, and job descriptions. Since they were carrying out a pilot project, yes, there were violations, but not such as to put them in jail. We will not stop, and we will seek justice". Earlier, the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky court issued a verdict against three current and one former employee of the reserve, who were found guilty of embezzlement of 450 million rubles during the implementation of a program to clean up the hard-to-reach territory of the reserve from accumulated metal (barrels, structures, etc.). All four received real terms.

But the case caused a huge resonance not only in the environmental environment, but also in society as a whole. The defenders pointed out that the case was based on the testimony of two businessmen who concluded pre-trial agreements, in addition, according to the investigation, tons of metal were not removed from the territory of the reserve, but hidden underground. But during the investigation, the burial was not found.

"Expert studies conducted in the fall of 2022 using high-tech methods without interfering with the natural environment showed that there was no buried waste on the territory, and work to eliminate the accumulated environmental damage was carried out", - the press service of the Kronotsky Reserve noted.

The institution itself suspended work for some time, due to the refusal of employees to work against the background of a lawsuit against colleagues.

Now the criminal case will be reviewed.