The Murder of General Rokhlin

the leader of the opposition Movement in Support of the Army, Defence Industry and Military Science (Dvizhenie v podderzhku armii, oboronnoi promyshlennosti i voennoi nauki) was killed by a single bullet when asleep in his bed. Approximately five hours later, a team of police investigators arrived at the scene and arrested Rokhlin's wife, Tamara Pavlovna, nee Osminkina, on the grounds of her reported confession that she 'did what she had wanted to-at last'.3 The alleged murder weapon, a small 5.45 mm self-loading pistol given to General Rokhlin by the then Defence Minister, Pavel Grachev, to commemorate his feat of arms in Chechnya, was recovered from the bushes outside the fence of the General's dacha. Tamara Rokhlina reportedly said that she had thrown it out of the window after the killing. It was announced that Rokhlina's fingerprints were found on the pistol.4 It was made known that she killed her husband after a bitter family row which ensued as a result of the General being late for the celebration of his son's 14th birthday (Rokhlin left the Duma, his place of work, at around 7 p.m. but appeared in Klokovo only at midnight and even forgot to buy his son a present.5 Some sources also suggested that both the General and his wife were drunk.6 On 10 July Tamara Rokhlina was officially charged with premeditated murder in accordance with Article 105 (part 1) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. If proven guilty, Mrs Rokhlina could be incarcerated for from six to 15 years. She was also to undergo psychiatric tests in the well-known Serbsky Institute to establish whether she was sane.7 According to some reports, on 3 July Tamara Rokhlina was in such a state that she could neither understand the questions asked by the investigators nor recognise her old friends and relatives.8 On 7 July the General's 28-year old daughter Elena, whose request to visit her mother in jail was refused, suggested that 'my Mum is hardly feeling any better'.9 Tamara Rokhlina's lawyers, Mikhail Burmistrov and Boris Van'kovich, were allowed to see their client for the first time only on the sixth day after her arrest. The investigators even tried to intimidate the lawyers by hinting that they should not have taken up the case.10 On 11 July it was made public that Rokhlina's fingerprints were actually never found on the pistol which had allegedly been used as a murder weapon. The window out of which Rokhlina supposedly tossed the pistol is about 20 yards away from the place where it was discovered (Rokhlina is not known as a person of remarkable physical strength). Besides, this

Criminology · Nuclear Issues and Defense · Psychology

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