MOSCOW, July 8 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Thursday replaced community service passed upon Andrey Gayev, the third defense witness in a case against actor Mikhail Efremov who had stated  that the defendant had not driven his Jeep, with a fine of 50,000 rubles, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

In late April, three defense witnesses in the case of Efremov were convicted and sentenced to community service for false testimony. On July 7, sentence of Gayev’s friend Alexander Kobets and one more defendant Tevan Badasyan was upheld.

According to the case materials, Kobets and Gayev, who had been charged with giving false evidence in the case, were not present at the site at the time of the accident and could not be witnesses of the crash.

Altogether, three cases were initiated against persons claiming they were witnesses of the crush on suspicion of giving deliberately false testimony. Thus, Kobets and Gayev said they saw not Efremov, but someone else driving the car at the time of the accident. The third defendant, Tevan Badasyan, alleged that he detected another person being in the car alongside the actor. 

In October 2020, the Moscow City Court reduced jail sentence of Efremov by 6 months, from 8 to 7.5 years. The actor was found guilty of driving under influence (DUI) resulting in vehicular homicide.

As established by the court, on the evening of June 8, Efremov driving his car crossed into the oncoming lane in central Moscow and collided with a delivery service vehicle. He was arrested on the scene. Alcohol and drugs were reportedly found in his blood. Victim Sergey Zakharov was taken to hospital where he died early in the morning of June 9.

Efremov pleaded guilty in the case.