[MSN] Hermitage Theft Suspect Released

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Hermitage Theft Suspect Released
// Antiquarian Maxim Shepel has become a witness in the Hermitage case
Russian prosecutors have released Maxim Shepel, detained on suspicion of 
the Hermitage museum theft in St. Petersburg. The antiquarian’s lawyer, 
Andrey Pavlov said Shepel had become a witness. The new status in the 
trial cost him dear. Maxim Shepel suffered an eye injury and was 
admitted to a psychiatric ward of the jail hospital. Kommersant 
correspondent Andrey Tsyganov reports.
Lawyer Andrey Pavlov received a call from the Prosecutor General’s 
Office yesterday afternoon to learn that the investigator had decided to 
revoke the preventive punishment for his client, Shepel. The antiquarian 
has become a witness in the case on the Hermitage theft as his custody 
term was to expire today.

Maxim Shepel’s relatives and lawyer went to a jail hospital to meet the 
former suspect. They also called for an ambulance as the antiquarian had 
suffered an eye injury after the arrest and fallen into reactive state.

“For the time being, we have agreed with Number 2 State Hospital that 
they will admit him there; but I can’t say anything definite about the 
mental disorder. I can only hope that it is a temporary state caused by 
the arrest or an injury,” the lawyer told Kommersant.

Maxim Shepel went through the hospital’s gate squeezing the paper on the 
revocation of the arrest in his hands. As the man saw Kommersant’s 
reporters and doctors who came with the ambulance, he got scared and 
moaned that “they promised to let me go home.” Shepel’s relatives 
managed to calm him down and put onto the ambulance. Kommersant 
correspondent tried to ask the man how he suffered the injury; but Maxim 
Shepel only groaned in response.

After the ambulance took the ex-suspect away, his lawyer recounted his 
client’s misfortunes.

“It all began on the 5th of August when officers of the 9th criminal 
investigation department came to Shepel’s place. They asked him if he 
had sold a silver chalice to Moscow’s Orthodox Antique curiosity shop 
last year [the Moscow shop brought the stolen chalice to Russian 
authorities.] Shepel confirmed the fact and said that he had accepted 
the chalice for sale on a commission basis from a curiosity shop in St. 
Petersburg. The officers left, but went back later with a search 
warrant. They took Shepel’s collection of 319 ancient icons, the system 
block of his PC and documents for the icons such as experts’ 
certificates and others. After that, they told Maxim that he was 
arrested, and asked him to follow them. I heard him testify. He said: I 
don’t know anything about a theft in the Hermitage; I don’t know the 
Zavadskys [the Hermitage’s former curator Larisa Zavadskaya died after 
the inspection began, and his husband Nikolay is changed with the 
theft]; I have never heard the name. There were no more interrogations, 
as far as I know. He was taken to the Kuibyshevsky Court and to a 
detention center after the arrest. He was taken to hospital the 
following morning. The court issued an arrest warrant on August 7. I 
came to visit Maxim to the jail on the following day but they told me he 
was no longer there and taken to the Haas hospital. As jail doctors 
said, Shepel was ‘unable to cooperate’.”

Maxim Shepel’s relatives are determined to sue the Prosecutor General’s 
Office for the wrongful arrest of the antiquarian and seek sizeable 
damages. Andrey Pavlov told Kommersant that the claims would be filed, 
but “it is too early to say what they will look like – first, we need to 
have Maxim recovered and hold tests.”

Three people are still in custody as part of a probe into the Hermitage 
theft. These are Nikolay Zavadsky, the husband of the deceased curator, 
their son, Nikolay, and Zavadsky Snr.’s former colleague, Ivan Sobolev, 
who is a lecturer at St. Petersburg State University. Nikolay Zavadsky 
Snr. and Ivan Sobolev have already been charged with theft. Custody term 
for Zavadsky Jnr. expires tomorrow, and he may become a witness as well.

http://www.kommersant.com