Moscow Lawyer Sentenced for Aiding in Theft of Texts

A Moscow attorney will go to prison for aiding in the 1994 theft of millions of dollars of Hebrew, Chinese and Arab manuscripts from the Russian National Library.

Dmitry Yakubovsky, 33, was sentenced Nov. 14 to five years in prison and stripped of his property on charges of complicity in the theft of objects of national value. The heist allegedly was organized by an international criminal organization spanning Israel, Switzerland and Russia.

The 89 manuscripts, whose value has been estimated at between $250 million and $700 million, were to be sent to Israel and sold, the prosecution charged.

Defense attorneys vowed to take the case to the Russian Supreme Court.

“We don’t believe he is guilty on any of the charges,” said defense team leader Genrikh Padva. “We will appeal this to the end.”

Arrested in January 1995, Yakubovsky has been held in St. Petersburg’s notorious Kresty Prison throughout the investigation and trial, which began this spring.

According to testimony presented at the trial, Yakubovsky was to arrange for the transfer of the manuscripts, some of them 1,300 years old, to Israel. His precise role in the actual theft, however, was never clear.

Police first discovered the theft in December, after which a series of arrests in Moscow, Israel and St. Petersburg led them to Yakubovsky.

The manuscripts were then discovered in a St. Petersburg apartment.

Yakubovsky first rose to national prominence just before the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany, when he was tapped to lead investigations into corruption among army officers. The effort gained him the nickname “General Dima.”

Russian President Boris Yeltsin later used him to gather information on political rivals, including then-Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, who led the ill-fated blockade of the Russian Parliament building in October 1994.

Known as a jet-setter, Yakubovsky frequently traveled to Israel and Canada, where his wife, Marina Krasner, lives with their three children.