Interesting movie

A hearing on the merits of the criminal case against members of the punk band Pussy Riot is scheduled for July 30. The trial will be covered on the official website of the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow via video broadcast, court spokeswoman Daria Lyakh told reporters on Monday.

According to her, all meetings in this criminal case will be covered in a similar way.

Meanwhile, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva, told Interfax that the protracted case of the members of the punk group Pussy Riot, whom the court once again left in custody for six months, harms the image of Russia, and the girls should be released.

“They need to be released, they need to be apologized to, they need to be paid compensation for the time they spent under arrest. Is it conceivable to keep people under arrest for such a minor offense until trial? Moreover, among them there are mothers of young children,” - she stated.

According to Alekseeva, the punishment of the group members is inadequate for their actions. “Let the priest tell these girls that what they did was wrong. Instead, the entire state repressive apparatus has been thrown against the girls,” she said.

The human rights activist believes that the case is politically motivated and “demonstrates to the whole world that, despite the fact that according to our Constitution the church is separated from the state, in reality this is not the case at all.”

This case also demonstrates that in Russia there is no court at all - it is replaced by cliquey prosecutors for whom the law is nothing, so instead of the court decision that everyone is waiting for, they pompously talk about the fate of Russia and the “spiritual wounds of Orthodox Christians.” Twisted justice does not evoke any pity in them.

NEW: The defense of the members of the punk band Pussy Riot claims that the court is “imposing” new lawyers on the arrested girls, Interfax-Religion reports.

As the lawyer of one of the defendants, Violetta Volkova, told reporters, at the preliminary hearing, which took place on Monday in the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow, the judge indicated in the ruling that new lawyers should be appointed to their clients.

“We don’t understand how, in the presence of defense lawyers who work with girls by agreement, the court imposes new lawyers on them,” Volkova is surprised. She emphasized that this is contrary to procedural norms, as well as lawyer’s ethics. “We don’t know if there is a connection between these lawyers and the trial or the investigation, but we assume that there may be one,” she added.

The lawyer for the other accused, Nikolai Polozov, noted that during the investigation of this case there had already been attempts to introduce other lawyers to them. “Then we fought back, but the enemy does not sleep,” he said.

At the same time, the defenders expressed confidence that at the next meeting their clients will file a motion to remove these lawyers and will not allow them to participate in the trial.

In turn, court press secretary Daria Lyakh told reporters that the phrase about the appointment of new lawyers is standard when making such decisions. According to her, this phrase means that if the accused refuse their lawyers, the court can provide them with assigned defenders.

“This phrase in no way diminishes the status of lawyers in the trial, but only explains to defendants their rights. There is no talk of appointing new lawyers,” the press secretary concluded.