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Russia Releases Former Intelligence Officer Behind Probe of 1999 Bombings A court in the city of Nizhny Tagil has released former FSB officer Mikhail Trepashkin. As a former intelligence officer and lawyer, Trepashkin led a probe into the 1999 apartment bombings — attacks that claimed the lives of over 200 people in Moscow. His supporters claimed Trepashkin was punished for his attempts to reveal the truth. The court released the former FSB officer on parole, his defense lawyer, Yelena Lipster said Wednesday. Trepashkin returned home today, she said adding that the court ruling was absolutely unexpected for him and his defense team. A Moscow military court sentenced Mikhail Trepashkin to four years in a penal colony for possessing an unregistered weapon and disclosing state secrets, the lawyer recalled. Trepashkin and his supporters said that the charges against him were politically motivated — the former FSB agent led a lone investigation into the 1999 apartment bombings that were blamed on Chechen separatists. Later the Supreme Court upheld the sentence handed down to Trepashkin. Trepashkin’s supporters said his only crime was to have exposed evidence that pointed to government complicity in the killing of more than a hundred civilians during the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow. Shortly before he was due to present this evidence in court, police stopped him on the road and claimed they found a gun in the trunk of his car
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