McMahon leant in towards Straker. ‘Léon Gazdanov is the prosecutor general.’
‘Meaning what?’
‘He's the most senior prosecutor in the whole of the Russian federal judicial system.’
Straker saw a noticeably short man, wearing a bright blue uniform with gold flashes and brass buttons, appear through a door on the inside of the entrance hall and make his way onto the stage. Léon Gazdanov, with the curtest of nods, barely acknowledged the minister as he strode across to stand behind the lectern.
Straker was given his first opportunity to size up the man who was now, effectively, charged with driving the case against them. From his own experience, he saw his problem immediately: Gazdanov was no more than five feet one. Round-faced, Straker guessed he was in his early forties; Gazdanov had thinning ginger hair, which had been keenly coiffured – shaped to stand some distance from his head – to increase his height and presence, perhaps? Gazdanov's face was fleshy; his features appearing over large. For all that, the man radiated considerable bearing. Medals were strung out in two rows across his chest. Straker wondered what those could possibly be awarded for … in the judiciary.
Straker was getting concerned: Gazdanov's expression struck him as that of a man who looked like he had something to prove.
‘The people of Russia have been wronged,’ Gazdanov stated in a voice with a rasping nasal edge to it. ‘I have been given unlimited resources to bring the perpetrators of this crime – the death of thirty civilians – to justice. I have enough staff backing and support from the courts to make a watertight case, enabling this trial to be held in the Supreme Court of Russia.’
Straker was surprised to hear McMahon actually groan.
‘This full application of the judicial system,’ continued Gazdanov, ‘will give me the confidence to make a quick judgment: I intend to have those responsible brought to justice – and starting their lifetime of hard labour – within four weeks.’
Flashguns were fired off in a continuous volley.
It appeared that Tahm Nazar and Remy Sabatino were now, as individuals, destined to face the full might of the Russian State.
TWENTY-ONE
The injured Formula One driver, still groggy from the effect of the induced coma, could hear distant voices. Sabatino's brain was struggling to process what was going on around her. Her whole left side was extremely sore and uncomfortable. She felt any movement keenly. Her throat was aching like hell.
She was desperate to pee. Trying to speak, no sounds emerged from her mouth that she could recognize as words, because of the emergency throat surgery. She tried slapping her right hand on the bed to attract attention.
But no one could hear her – or they were choosing not to.
Straker and McMahon had to wait some time before they could get out of the Ministry of Justice building. The moment the conference was over, every journalist, photographer and cameraman had scrambled for the door, desperate to get back to base and file their reports of this dramatic announcement.
Straker and McMahon finally managed to break out; they ducked down into a side street to find their car.
‘The stakes have become truly alarming,’ said McMahon as they pulled away. This time McMahon had got into the back seat of the car and was sitting next to Straker.
As he looked across at her, he realized her demeanour had changed. ‘Your reaction in there was quite a surprise.’
‘It's the seniority of the prosecutor and the seniority of the court,’ she said. ‘As a court of first instance, criminal cases are only ever heard at the district level. For the Zhar-ptitsa circuit, that should probably be the Moscow District of Nagatinsky Zaton, in the Southern Administrative Area. If there was a particularly serious case then, maybe, it could be heard at a regional level, within the jurisdiction of the Moscow Oblast – the next level up. But … for the Ministry of Justice to nominate a case to be heard in the Supreme Court – as its court of first instance – is quite extraordinary.’
‘Because the case is that serious?’
‘Legal competences could have had a bearing on what level of court should hear it,’ she said. ‘The only other instance that I can recall of a case going straight to the Supreme Court was the Dubrovka Theatre siege in 2002. In that instance, the surviving hostage-taker – the only one not killed by the Spetsnaz – was tried at the same high level. But that involved hostage-taking – and a clear act of terrorism.’
‘The Ministry of Justice is equating the deaths at the Grand Prix with an act of terror?’
‘Not necessarily, but it does seem to be ranking this at the same level of significance. A material factor in the theatre siege was the very strong public opinion – which, of course, made it highly political.’
‘Are you saying there has been political intervention here?’
‘Not for definite. Sending it to the Supreme Court, and combining that with the appointment of the prosecutor general himself, though, does take us into some very strange territory.’
‘Is Gadzooks a political appointment?’
MacMahon didn’t smile. ‘Léon Gaz–dan–ov … Politics could well be involved in his appointment. President Tarkovsky has a very strange history of dealings with the office of prosecutor general.’
‘Strange, how?’
‘Before he reached the Kremlin, the president was head of the Federal Security Service, the FSB – successor to the Cold War's infamous KGB. While there, the-then prosecutor general had been particularly successful in uncovering crime. A major coup had been to expose a network of corruption in government circles, specifically in relation to the awarding of defence contracts and the widespread receipt of backhanders. It was a big story. It made the-then prosecutor general. Afterwards, the-then PG turned his anti-corruption sights on Moscow – particularly on the bigger government departments. A big mistake … for him, at least. The high command did not like it. At all. A month later Tarkovsky, as head of the FSB, appeared on television and showed, live on air, a grainy video clip of a man cavorting, naked, with several women in an expensive hotel bedroom. Tarkovsky claimed the man in the tape was the-then prosecutor general and that the sex romp had allegedly been paid for by several of the people the prosecutor general had been investigating at the time.’
‘You’re kidding?’
McMahon shook her head. ‘With no further investigation of the video clip, that prosecutor general was hounded out of office. As you might imagine, since Tarkovsky became president, there has been a particular wariness on the part of the prosecutor general's office to do anything to cross him.’
Straker could only shake his head once again.
‘It gets murkier,’ said McMahon. ‘The current prosecutor general, Léon Gazdanov, was appointed – personally – by Tarkovsky after he became president.’
‘So he's a presidential puppet?’
‘Not a puppet, exactly – but a placeman, certainly.’
‘So you are saying, then, that the decisions to use the Supreme Court as the court of first instance, and the appointment of the prosecutor general – with all of the complicated history of that office with Tarkovsky – must have been motivated by politics?’
‘And probably a fair way up the greasy pole, at that.’
TWENTY-TWO
Their car made slow progress through an overcast Moscow. High cloud-cover made for a grey light over the city, giving everything a gloomy feel. Its bleakness seemed entirely appropriate to match the gloom of recent developments – as well as the mood in the car.
