27 October 2011

2011-10-27 Interfax - Copy of Criminal Inv Report given to HIH

Interfax: The Romanoffs Get Theirs: The Investigative Committee of Russia Hands Over to the House of Romanoff a Copy of the Report which brings to a Close the Criminal Investigation into the Murders of the Holy Passion-Bearer Emperor Nicholas II and His Family

Moscow, October 27. INTERFAX. The Investigative Committee of Russia has handed over to the House of Romanov a copy of the report detailing the findings of its criminal investigation into the murders of Emperor Nicholas II and his family.

As announced by Wladimir Solov’ev, senior criminal investigator in the Main Criminal Division, at a press conference in the central offices of Interfax in Moscow, the descendants of the Romanoffs have received the investigative materials in the criminal case.

“I am entirely satisfied with this report. These materials consist of more than 800 pages. The work of the Investigative Committee includes the labor of dozens of prominent experts who employed many technological innovations and methods for determining identification. I hope that this decision will serve the cause of truth,” Solov’ev said.

Solov’ev also added that the representatives of the House of Romanoff now may familiarize themselves with the materials pertaining to the deaths of the Imperial Family.

“The case includes 28 volumes of material. I think that, if there are any questions about the investigation, the Grand Duchess will be able to familiarize herself with the documents,” Solov’ev stated, adding that the case has never been consider a secret matter.

“From the very beginning, from August 19, 1993, we have tried to conduct an investigation that is totally open, inasmuch as the questions of the case concern events that happened long ago, but are of enormous interest to society today,” Solov’ev noted.

In response, the Director of the Chancellery of the House of Romanoff, Alexander Zakatov, stated that the delivery of this report to the descendants of the Romanoffs bears witness to the fact that the modern Russian state enjoys a mature legal culture.

“This is a very important event—proof that the Russian Federation is a government guided by the rule of law. Also, this is proof that all citizens have equal rights under the law regardless of historical upheavals,” he noted. “We hope that familiarity with the materials from this case will allow us to know even more and make appropriate decisions concerning it in the future,” Zakatov said.

At the press conference at Interfax, the head of the legal office of the House of Romanoff, German Luk’ianov, took possession of these materials from the hand of the investigator, providing in turn a receipt for the report. However, according to Solov’ev, if the representatives of the House of Romanoff wish to publish these materials about the criminal investigation, they will first have to obtain the express permission of the Head of the Investigative Committee.

“The question of publication should be decided by the Investigative Committee. A request to the the Committee for specific permission should be made before doing so,” Solov’ev said.

Alexander Zakatov said that the House of Romanoff plans to make available the materials in the report on the Internet.

“The results of the investigation should be available to anyone and everyone. The Head of the Imperial House never asked for preferential access to these materials or any other advantage in this matter, but now that the report has been given to us, it should be published in accordance with the wishes of the Grand Duchess, preferably on the Internet,” Zakatov said.

In addition, A. Zakatov emphasized that, before anything would be published, the House of Romanoff would observe all the requirements of the law and seek from the Investigative Commission the necessary permission.

“Of course, the goal is to make the materials available to everyone, but this will be done in strict compliance with the laws of Russia, and because the Grand Duchess and her son are citizens of the Russian Federation, they will never violate the laws, and will never otherwise circumvent the meaning or spirit of the laws.”

Solov’ev also stated that there is no doubt whatsoever about the authenticity of the remains of the Imperial Family: “The Investigative Committee has made a categorical conclusion on the question of the authenticity of the remains of the Imperial family, including those of Aleksei and Maria, which were found in 2007.” He noted that the authenticity was established on the basis of an anthropological study, an analysis of historical materials, and a forensic study of the remains themselves.

Nonetheless, Solov’ev called for the creation of a governmental commission with the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church to settle finally the question of the authenticity of the remains of the emperor and his family.

“The correct thing to do would be the creation of a governmental commission, including representatives of the Church or of other specialists whom the Church trusts. Just on the basis of this committee’s report alone, there would be enough for a civil discussion and debate,” Solov’ev said. For his part, Zakatov stated that “right now, the Church has not found a sufficient basis to recognize these remains as belonging to the Imperial Family.”

He noted that the people trust the Church more than official state agencies. “For many Orthodox, the position of the Church remains the last word,” Zakatov said. Solov’ev also said that investigators did not have documents that would confirm that Lenin and other senior leaders of the USSR gave the order to shoot the royal family.

“There isn’t a single document which would prove that Lenin or other leaders in the Kremlin gave the order to shoot the Imperial Family. If there were oral instructions to that effect, they were never later written down and we do not possess any such documents. The execution was carried out on the orders of the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet,” Solov’ev said.

Zakatov also emphasized that the Imperial House does not have information of the direct involvement of Lenin in the execution of the Imperial family, however it does have indirect evidence of the Soviet leader’s possible knowledge of events in Ekaterinburg.

“We have never advanced the idea that Lenin himself issued the order. There are no official documents on this question; but this does not exclude the possibility that leaders of the Soviet government did issue the order, and there is indirect documentary evidence of this,” Zakatov stated.

Zakatov added that the Imperial House unequivocally condemns the activity of the Bolshevik Iurovskii, who is directly implicated in the murder of the Imperial family.

“For us, there can be no question about Iurovskii’s role. For us, it is absolutely certain that Iurovskii is the one who carried out this criminal order,” Zakatov emphasized.

In July 1991, on Staraia Koptiakovskaia road near Ekaterinburg, a grave was uncovered revealing the remains of nine persons.

Experts announced that the graves contained the remains of members of the Imperial family: Nicholas II, his 46-year-old wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, their daughters (the 22-year-old Olga, 21-year-old Tat’iana, 17-year-old Anastasia), and their personal servants (the 53-year-old Evgeny Botkin, 40-year-old Anna Demidova, 62-year-old Alois Trupp, and 48-year-old Ivan Kharitonov). However, the remains of Tsarevich Aleksei Nikolaevich Romanoff and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Romanoff were not found in the grave.

On July 29, 2007, during an archeological excavation of what is commonly called the “second gravesite” near Ekaterinburg, fragments of teeth and bone were discovered. Russian and international experts advanced the hypothesis that the newly found fragmentary remains near Ekaterinburg belong to Tsarevich Aleksei and Grand Duchess Maria. On October 1, 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rehabilitated Nicholas II and the members of his family. On January 15, 2009, however, a different ruling put an end to the criminal investigation into the deaths of the members of the Romanoff family.

The House of Romanoff has never accepted the findings of the Investigative Committee that the members of the Imperial Family were victims of an ordinary crime perpetrated by ordinary criminals, arguing instead that the Romanoffs were deprived of their lives by the government. After a number of legal motions, the House of Romanoff succeeded in reversing the ruling ending the criminal investigations into the deaths of the Romanoffs and their family members.

In January 2011, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation completed its investigation into the criminal case of the deaths of the members of the Russian Imperial House and their servants in 1918-1919.

The House of Romanoff appealed to the Attorney General of the Russian Federation with a request for help in receiving from the Investigative Committee a copy of the report on the closing of the investigation into the criminal case. However, the House of Romanoff never received a reply from the Attorney General.

As a result, a motion was filed in the Basmannyi Court in Moscow, and on July 27, 2011, the court ordered that a copy of the report on the closing of the investigation into the deaths be delivered over to the heirs of Nicholas II.

Members of the family of the last Russian emperor and their servants—a total of 11 persons—were shot on orders from the Presidium of the Ural Soviet on the night of July 17, 1918.

On September 7, the Mosgorsud [Moscow City Court] ordered the Investigative Committee to deliver to the relatives of the Romanoffs a copy of the report on the closing of the investigations into the criminal case of the deaths of Tsar Nicholas II. At a press conference the question of the remains of the Romanoffs murdered in Alapaevsk was also raised. Concerning those remains, Solov’ev said that investigators consider it imperative to intensify the search for these remains.

“I consider it necessary to intensify the search and properly bury the remains of these martyrs, all the more so that a more solid basis for this search now exists,” said Solov’ev, noting the necessary governmental support for the continuation of the search, including diplomatic support from the Russian diplomatic mission in China.

“It is known that the martyrs are buried in China,” the researcher stated.

The Director of the Chancellery of the House of Romanoff, A. Zakatov, stated that the martyrs were buried in an Orthodox church in China.

“During the Cultural Revolution in China the cathedral was destroyed. We now have an idea where the remains may have been moved to,” said Zakatov.

By the term “Alapaevsk martyrs” (or “martyrs of the Alapaevsk mineshafts”) is meant to refer to the members of the House of Romanoff and their companions who were executed by representatives of Soviet power on the night of July 5/18, 1918, the day following the executions of the Imperial Family, 18 kilometers from the town of Alapaevsk in the Lower Selim Mine. Their bodies were thrown into one of the mineshafts of the mine. On June 8, 2009, the Attorney General of Russia posthumously rehabilitated all those killed near Alapaevsk.

The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad canonized all those killed near Alapaevsk (except F. Remez) as martyrs. The Russian Orthodox Church recognizes as martyrs only two of those who were killed near Alapaevsk: Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fedorovna and the monk Varvara.

The original report can be found at http://www.interfax.ru/txt.asp?id=214138

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