In society

On the front line

January 20, 2009 Alexander Cherkasov

The student of the journalism department of Moscow State University, the newspaper, 25-year-old Anastasia Baburova, who was caused by a firearm, Killer, who killed the lawyer and human rights activist Stanislav Markelov, died in the hospital without coming into consciousness. The doctors did everything possible, trying to get the girl out of the state of the coma, but the wound was too heavy and the journalist failed to save. It is terrible to realize this ... The editors of the "daily magazine" brings its deepest condolences to the relatives and friends of our colleagues.

Killed Stanislav Markelov. Somehow I really did not want to believe, but ... such things.

Actually, the bullet followed him from the very beginning of our acquaintance. From the third of October 1993, when Stas ran around Moscow and dragged the wounded. And what else was to do among the general madness? A group of young people from among the "left" recalled Maximilian Voloshin, organized the "Medbrida". One of them is Markelov. Then he also wore the "horse tail". None of the Voloshinites were injured then ...

The Memorials were also on the streets, for the same reason. So we met. In the summer of 1994, Stas even went to Ingushetia, to the zone of recent armed conflict.

However, Stanislav did not become a “human rights activist” (a word that sometimes hides a dense inability under him), but a defender in the strict sense of the word - a lawyer. He left the "informal" environment.

By the end of the 1990s, even the Federal Security Service recognized his skill. Stas was a defender in many cases where the Russian “left -wing” was accused of terrorism - from attempts to blow up Moscow monuments to the kings until allegedly preparing the assassination attempt on “Old Man Kondratenko” in Krasnodar. All these cases "fell apart", the accused were justified. As a result, in the next such case, the FSB hastened to interrogate Markelov as a witness - the witness can no longer be a defender.

But the real fame of Stanislav brought participation in the two most high -profile "Chechen" affairs. Markelov was a representative of the victim in the affairs of Budanov and Lapin. He was engaged in the “Budanovsky” business, tried to protest the parole of the killer.

But the “Lapin case” - the only story of the “disappearance” of a resident of Chechnya, ending in the condemnation of the Russian “security forces” - is less known.

Lapin (operational call sign "Cadet") had stupidity to threaten Anna Politkovskaya, who investigated in his articles the case of the "disappearance" of the young Chechen Zelimkhan Murdalov.

Lapin even signed emails with threats with his call sign. On that and burned - the case acquired public significance, the "cadet" was arrested and transferred to Chechnya ...

At the trial, lawyer Stanislav Markelov, representing the interests of Astamir Murdalov, the father of the "disappeared", achieved the exclusion from the case of "evidence received in violation of the law," because in Grozny Lapin was placed in Orb-2, an illegal torture prison. The place, if the best than the October temporary department of the internal affairs of the Grozny, in which Lapin "worked" in the winter of 2001, is not much. And it was difficult to prevent any testimony there.

It would seem that the lawyer works against himself, but ... As a result, the verdict was based only on objective evidence, and not on the personal recognition of the accused. And the subsequent appeal did not allow Sergey Lapin to be released. "The rule of law" is not a slogan, but a practical need.

In these two matters, Stanislav Markelov defended the honor of Russia.

After all, he was perhaps the only Russian lawyer who worked on "loud" cases in Chechnya itself. Until the very last time - Stanislav was the defender of Magomedsalah Masayev, who was drawn with the Chechen authorities about a long maintenance in an illegal prison. In August last year, Masaev "disappeared". Such things.

And Markelov represented the victims in the "Annunciation case" when the Bashkir riot police "cleared" the whole city returning from Chechnya.

He was a lawyer of the victims in the Nord-Ost case. He helped his mother, Tatyana Lukashova, find out whether she buried her daughter. He defended the hostage to Yah Neperekhoev, which the investigation was recorded in the "Shahids".

Many of Stanislav’s affairs can be traced under the articles of Anna Politkovskaya. True, only until 2006 ... such things.

For some reason, in such different matters-the same person. Why? Probably there is little space on the front line ...

Moving from the "left" youth to lawyers, discarding the "horse tail", Stanislav did not change the beliefs.

He participated in human rights conferences and social forums, trying to combine the ideas of human rights and social justice. By this he stood out from the "human rights defenders", and, probably, from lawyers.

His beliefs grew into actions.

Markelov defended the "left" activists - in various regions of Russia.

"Ecologists", whose protest camps in different regions of the country were increasingly becoming the subject of attention of administrative and law enforcement agencies, legal and illegal armed groups.

Trade union activists.

Belarusian opposition. This, if anyone does not know, is called internationalism ...

Anti -fascists - to be against fascism, after all, also became unsafe. Markelov was a representative of the victim in the "case of Alexander Ryukhin." This young anti -fascist was killed in Moscow in 2006 ... such things.

Yes, you can’t list everything.

After all, they also attacked Stanislav himself about five years ago. On April 16, 2004, a portfolio with documents and a telephone was selected in the Moscow metro metro of Markelov.

Who? Because of what?

That's the same now.

Stanislav Markelov was a lawyer for such “hot” matters that now, after thinking, it is difficult to say which side the bullet could fly from.

Almost the same could be said about Anna Politkovskaya. Perhaps I'm wrong, but ... in my impression, Markelov was just as stood out from the lawyer community as Politkovskaya - from the journalistic community. The paths of these two people have repeatedly crossed in recent years. In different ways, but “on the front line” they did one thing.

Among the general madness, find your meaningful business - maybe you will save yourself and others. May be...

On May 20, Stanislav Markelov would have turned thirty -five. We will meet this day without him.

The author is a member of the board of society "Memorial"