Penza, 7 November 2014. PenzaNews. Georgy Kamnev, member of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region, the first secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party, stated his party fellows hope that Andrei Zuev, member of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region of the fifth convocation of the Communist Party who has already spent almost a year in custody under gang crime charges, will be found not guilty.

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“Of course we hope the man will be found not guilty,” Georgy Kamnev stated, adding that he still thinks the accusations were politically motivated, just like he thought a year ago.

In his opinion, the investigators were reluctant to share the information with the media on “his [Zuev’s] allegedly horrible crimes” after the arrest, which would serve to make the public believe in the accusations.

“Once it’s done – no comments, all stopped. This is why we believe something is wrong. If it had been a serious crime, some information on it would have leaked outside, like with other crime gangs. But there is no info now, from official sources at least,” said the agency interlocutor.

He also added that according to the information obtained by the Communist Party, the verdict will not feature any of the crimes listed in the very beginning of criminally proceedings, which may be due to lack of substantial evidence.

“As far as I know, there will be no gang crime or gang organization [charges]. I may be wrong, but that is as far as I know,” Georgy Kamnev clarified.

The investigators believe that since the beginning of 2000s Andrei Zuev and five members of the armed group committed a series of crimes involving weapons against entrepreneurs and residents of the Penza region. Currently, five cases are considered within one procedure upon extortion, causing bodily harm, robbery and other crimes.

The detention of the suspects was organized on Wednesday, December 4, at ten addresses at once.

Commenting on the criminal case against Andrei Zuev, the First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the Communist party, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region Georgy Kamnev noted that it is of a political nature.