Ex-militiaman who served time for someone else's crime told about his detention

Former policeman Alexei Turchin, who served four years in prison for a crime committed by a man who looked like him, told Izvestia how he was detained.

On the morning of January 25, 2021, 47-year-old Turchin was leaving the entrance of his ex-civilian wife's apartment building. On the street he was surrounded by men in civilian clothes and convincingly asked to go with them to the Yakimanka police department. It was about the investigation of fraud.

"Bach - in my face they show me some kind of ID, they say about some kind of detention. I said to them, "Is this an unfunny prank?" They explain to me that they will tell me everything in the department, and fasten handcuffs on my wrists," recalls Turchin.

Gradually it became clear: the police believe that Turchin is a fraudster who introduced himself to the victims as Gleb Radulov. On December 7, 2020, he stole 8 million rubles during a transaction in the center of Moscow.

Turchin was sure: he had an ironclad alibi. On the day of the crime, the police said, he was on the other side of the city. There are details of calls and SMS, receipts from purchases in the store, testimony of acquaintances.

"In my head somehow still does not fit. It's the 21st century. Cameras everywhere, people are found in a matter of hours. There is a city video surveillance system in my entrance, the police could have taken data from it and seen when I enter, when I leave. But they delayed the arrest, and eventually the footage was lost. And the street, and from the store, where I entered, and from the bank," - shared Turchin.

Read more in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

Victim of "hypocrisy": external resemblance to a fraudster cost a Muscovite 4 years in colony