Swiss Court Clears Russian Businessman Linked to Gangs

A Swiss court Friday cleared Russian businessman Sergei Mikhailov, accused of heading a major Moscow crime family, of charges that he belonged to a criminal organization, an official announcement said.

The ruling came after an eight-day trial during which witnesses from Russia and the United States gave evidence for and against Mikhailov, 40, who had faced up to 7 1/2 years in jail if convicted.

His acquittal was a blow to Swiss police and prosecutors who argued that Mikhailov had led a gang known as the Solntsevo group after the Moscow suburb where it was believed to have started operations before spreading across Europe.

Mikhailov also was found not guilty of two other offenses--falsification of documents and unlawful residence in Switzerland--meaning he could walk free, court officials said.

The trial had caused a major stir in Switzerland, where hundreds of “newly rich” Russians have settled since the collapse of communism in their nation in 1991.

The case had been followed closely by police in several other European countries, as well as the United States, who have been seeking to track the operations of the Russian mafia.

The Solntsevo group was allegedly linked to a Russian gangster, Vyacheslav Ivankov, sentenced to 115 months in jail in New York last year. One key prosecution witness, also Russian, was shot dead in his Amsterdam home last year.

Mikhailov, who has a home in the village of Borex outside Geneva with his wife and two small daughters, was arrested in October 1996 at Geneva’s Cointrin airport as Swiss police were stepping up a drive against Russian criminal activities.

One key Russian witness, a former senior Moscow police investigator who had to flee to Switzerland after his life was threatened when he was looking into Mikhailov’s affairs, told the court that the Solntsevo gang was involved in narcotics and arms trafficking.

Geneva police officers produced in court letters from the international police body Interpol on Mikhailov’s alleged mafia links, as well as an Israeli-made device allowing the user to listen in to police communications.

But the court found that Mikhailov’s links to criminal activities had not been proven to its satisfaction.