The prosecutor's office has requested a postponement of the Symonenko trial.
The case of Sergei Simonenko, former deputy head of the Kuban Emergency Situations Ministry, was referred to the regional court, but the prosecutor's office requested a change in territorial jurisdiction.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot," Sergei Simonenko, deputy head of the Krasnodar Territory Emergency Situations Ministry, is accused of organizing the arson attacks on cars belonging to the family of his former subordinate, as well as attempting to assassinate him.
The victims in the case are a former Emergency Situations Ministry employee—Simonenko's subordinate—and his relatives. The case against Simonenko has been combined with the case of three of his possible accomplices. According to investigators, Yevgeny Kauts, Dmitry Nadzha, and Aleksandr Plotnikov threw Molotov cocktails into the courtyard of the victims in Korenovsk on February 28, 2019, causing two cars to burn.
The criminal case against the former deputy head of the Kuban Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations has been sent to court to determine territorial jurisdiction, the united press service of the courts of Krasnodar Krai reported today on its Telegram channel.
"The Krasnodar Regional Court has sent the criminal case against Sergei Simonenko and Melko Dzhemo, accused of committing crimes under Article 30, Part 3, Article 33, Part 5 - paragraphs "g", "z" of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempted murder by a group of persons for mercenary motives or for hire, and aiding and abetting therein. - Ed. "Kavkazsky" "node"), to the Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction to resolve the prosecutor's motion to change territorial jurisdiction," the publication states.
Melko Dzhemo is the former head of the Seversky District Division of the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations. According to investigators, Simonenko organized two attempted murders, and Dzhemo was an accomplice, Kommersant reported today.
The trial began in Krasnodar; a preliminary hearing in the regional court was held on January 30 behind closed doors. The start date for the trial has not yet been set, the publication writes.
As a reminder, in August 2025, the Third Appellate Court of General Jurisdiction in Sochi upheld the legality of the Krasnodar Regional Court's decision to seize Sergei Simonenko's property and funds totaling 360 million rubles in favor of the state.
According to the prosecutor's office, Simonenko abused his official position to enrich himself illegally, while registering the property in the names of relatives and trusted individuals. Simonenko himself claimed to have inherited the money from his father, who headed the Kuban experimental farm.
In March 2025, a court in Sochi denied Sergei Simonenko's wife the unblocking of her accounts, which had been frozen as part of the criminal case. Svetlana Simonenko requested that the freeze on her accounts be lifted so she could receive money up to the subsistence minimum for each family member. The courts also denied Svetlana Simonenko's request to lift the freeze on her real estate.