Penza, 16 August 2012. PenzaNews. Olga Zelenina’s lawyer Natalia Andreeva, who is currently abroad, confirmed the information that the head of the chemical-analytical laboratory of the Penza Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture Olga Zelenina was detained by the staff of Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FDCS) on Wednesday, August 15.

“We spoke with Olga Zelenina on the phone and she said that she was charged with involvement in a criminal group, namely writing the false expert opinions that helped people engaged in drug trafficking to evade responsibility. The case involves an entrepreneur Shilov, a major supplier of poppy cultivation in Russia who with the help of his lawyer asked Olga Zelenins to give an expert explanation on a particular criminal case,” said Natalia Andreeva in an interview with news agency “PenzaNews.”

According to her, the detention may also be related to another criminal case involving an entrepreneur Polukhin.

“In this case she also acted as an expert,” the lawyer explained.

“I think that Shilov’s case is just an excuse. She was detained to be intimidated and withdrawn from the case of Polukhin on which we have strong evidence based on the conclusions of such specialists as Olga Zelenina, Sergei Polyatykin and Yuri Voronkov. I would not be surprised if other experts become intimidated or if they try to withdraw the lawyers from the case,” Natalia Andreeva concluded.

As reported earlier, on Wednesday, August 15, several people (some of them were masked and had weapons) raided the house of the expert Olga Zelenina. Later she was arrested for 48 hours. According to available data, Olga Zelenina is suspected of colluding with businessmen allegedly involved in illicit poppy cultivation.

On Thursday, August 16 under guard, Olga Zelenina was taken to Moscow hospital No. 40 with a diagnosis of angina pectoris.

According to preliminary information, the health of the detained deteriorated after lengthy interrogations that were conducted first in Penza, and then in Moscow.