A jury trial has recognized the evidence gathered by the Kaliningrad Region investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee sufficient to convict the organizer, two kidnappers and an accomplice of kidnapping Lithuanian businessman Stanislovas Jucius. They include three residents of Kaliningrad Region aged 36, 35 and 40 and a 37-year-old resident of the town of Khimki, Moscow Region.

Depending on the role they were found guilty of organizing attempted murder in hire (part 1 of article 30, part 3 of article 33, paragraph “h” of part 2 of article 105 of the RF Penal Code), murder (part 1 of article 105), complicity in attempted murder on hire (part 1 of article 30, part 5 of article 33, paragraph “h” of part 2 of article 105), complicity in kidnapping a person (part 5 of article 33, paragraph “a” of part 3 of article 126), plotting illegal drug dealing (part 1 of article 30, paragraphs “a” and “d” part 3 of article 228-1), illegal purchase and storage of firearms and ammunition (part 2 of article 222).

The criminal investigation into disappearance of Stanislovas Jucius was started on 20 April 2007. The businessman’s remains were found in autumn 2011 in Bagrationovsk District.

According to investigators, citizen of the Lithuanian Republic 56-year-old Stanislovas Jucius, who lived in the city of Kaliningrad, was the CEO and founder of OOO ROSSLITSTROY, co-founder of the Jupoja concern located in the town of Šiauliai in Litheuania, and president of the Lithuanian Businessmen Club in the Kaliningrad Region. He took up construction in Kaliningrad in 90’s. Not long before Jucius went missing, ROSSLITSTROY was building blocks of flats in Basseynaya and Aksakov streets in Kaliningrad and a T.B. clinic.

The investigators’ version that the businessman had been killed after having been kidnapped and the kidnapping had been carefully planned and organized by someone from the close circle of Ivan Shevlye shot down in June 2011 in Gaydar street in Kaliningrad, was confirmed during the trial. The reason was a conflict between the businessmen as Shevalye didn't like that Jucius’s company was building a block of flats near his mansion.

The organizer of the crime coordinated the kidnappers’ actions in person. The court and investigators have found that in the morning of 18 April 2007, four accomplices tracked Stanislovas Jucius down near his house in the Central district of Kaliningrad. Knowing that the businessman was going to his office not in his personal car, but by public transport, they followed him in a Mercedes to the bus stop in Kalinin Prospekt in Kaliningrad.

Having waited till Stanislovas Jucius had left a fixed-run taxi and wanting to avoid public scandal, the perpetrators kidnapped the businessman by deceit. Having introduced themselves as law enforcement agents and showed forged IDs, they made the businessman sit in the car and took him to the woods not far from 32nd km of the A194 motorway Kaliningrad-Mamonovo. On their way one of the accomplices handcuffed the businessman and another one searched him, took his cell phone and took out a battery. The investigators believe that the perpetrators made a stop in the woods, took Stanislovas Jucius out of the car, while two of them held him Skosarev pointed a Makarov gun on him and forced to kneel, after that he shot no fewer than three shots to his head and body, though the organizer of the crime had planned only kidnapping and murder threats in order to stop him from running his business.

The victim died on the spot. To conceal the crime the perpetrators buried the body not far from the crime scene. On his arrival back in Kaliningrad the gunman received from the organizer 30 thousand rubles.

One of the defendants has been also found guilty of an attempted hired murder of a Moscow resident for a fee of 10 thousand US dollars, committed in August 2011. The defendant acting together with Skosarev failed to accomplish his criminal intention as they had mistaken the victim and attempted to kill a different person. Besides, one of the accomplices had a fit and the victim was not shot dead, but wounded. This circumstance allowed the law enforcement to apprehend the perpetrators shortly after the crime.

In addition, the jury found one of the defendants guilty of illegal drug dealing – over 3 kilos of Marijuana, about 800 grams of cocaine, about 3 kilos of meth and other drugs –more than 10 kilos in all.

During the investigation it has been found that one of the defendants was a legal advisor with a large trading company.

During the investigation into the disappearance of Stanislovas Jucius investigators together with the police officers have made a lot of work, which ended up in solution of not only the kidnapping and murder of the Lithuanian businessman, but a number of other crimes. The psychological contact set up by an investigator with one of the accomplices allowed investigators to get information on the possible burial place of the body and to find the remains and identify them by running a DNA test.

In addition, several dozens of forensic expert examinations have been run during the probe, several hundreds of questionings, searches and other investigating operations. The criminal case consists of 39 volumes.

Under the current legislation the Kaliningrad Region Court will pass a sentence based on the jury verdict determining the punishment for the crimes recognized to be proven to have been committed by the defendants.

The Kaliningrad Region Court found Valery Skosarev, the businessman’s killer, guilty and passed a sentence on 27 August 2013. Given the fact that he concluded a pre-trial cooperation deal with the investigation the court sentenced him to 13 years in prison.