Commanders of the 58th Army are ready to testify in the trial of General Ivan Popov

All commanders of the 58th Army, who took part in building the defense and protection of Zaporizhzhya region, have agreed to testify in the criminal case against the former commander of the army, Major-General Ivan Popov. This was reported by the accused himself on September 22 in the 2nd Western District Military Court.

"All commanders gave their consent in the petition submitted to the investigator at the final stage of familiarization with the materials, but my requests were ignored and not satisfied, and this violates my rights to my defense and proof of innocence," TASS quoted Popov as saying.

Talking to the agency, Popov noted that a number of defense witnesses were not questioned in the case, which, according to him, would have "shed light on the investigation."

He also said that he needed legal and economic assistance to familiarize himself with the case materials, as all the documents contain a large number of invoices, which the court plans to use in the future as evidence of his guilt.

Earlier, on July 24, Popov's lawyer said that the trial in the case could be moved from Moscow to Zaporizhzhya region. According to him, the place of the crime is indeed Zaporizhzhya region, so, according to the Criminal Procedure Code, the trial should be held in this region. However, the prosecutor, who will send the case to court, will decide on the territorial jurisdiction.

July 24, Chairman of the Investigative Committee (IC) of Russia Alexander Bastrykin told about the end of the preliminary investigation in the case of Popov, who is accused of fraud on a particularly large scale. He noted that Popov together with the second defendant, businessman Sergei Moiseyev, are familiarizing themselves with the materials of the criminal case.

According to investigators, the general and the businessman are involved in the theft of rolled metal products with a total value of over 114 million rubles, committed in 2023. The goods were purchased by the military-civil administration of Zaporizhzhya region to provide them to the Russian army as humanitarian aid.

However, the items were removed from the warehouse and sold to third parties in another region.

Popov was arrested on May 17 for two months. He was charged on May 24 under part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud"). Popov's lawyer Sergei Buynovsky then reported that the defendant does not admit his guilt.

On July 4, the IC added official forgery to Popov in the final wording of the charges. On the same day, law enforcement agencies reported that Moiseyev had partially repaid the damage in the criminal case.