Translated material
Lawyer-identityist
Karinna Moskalenko believes in the power of Strasbourg
Lawyer-identityist. Dmitry Medvedev said that he did not see the grounds for pardoning convicts who do not serve petitions. Thus, the discussion, whether he will have mercy on Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, in fact, closed. But the question: whether the ex-head of the Yukos will be released before the end of the deadline is still open. Khodorkovsky’s lawyer and director of the Center for International Protection Karinna Moskalenko leaves no hope that the European Court of Human Rights will help her client. Why does she believe in the power of Strasbourg - he recognized The New Times
“Blessed are hungry and thirsty truths, for they will be saturated. The gracious are blessed, because they will be pardoned ... ” - a middle -aged woman in a black blouse black in white peas and a long black pea skirt sings on the choir along with others. You immediately pay attention to it: it seems that she passes every word of church chants through herself. This is how neophytes usually look - people recently baptized, observing all posts, seeking to turn as many uninitiated as possible to faith. But Karinna Moskalenko was baptized 20 years ago, and formally she was not a neophytus.
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Entering the next business, Moskalenko convinced his colleagues each time that her client was innocent, and was indignant that in court it was not possible to prove it
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The defender is required everything that she does - whether she sings in the church choir a small Orthodox parish in Strasbourg, appears in a court in the case of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, quoting her articles and warning the jury about the responsibility of condemning the innocent, or writes complaints to the European Court of Human Rights, while discussing them on Skype with several colleagues, she does all this equally passionately. For excessive theatricality and inability to restrain her emotions, she is most often criticized: "It is not customary to arrange performances in our courts - Russian judges do not like it."
Why is she, the daughter of the general of the missile forces (and mother, a doctor who replaced many different specializations and all her life stuck with her husband in garrisons), suddenly decided to become a lawyer, Karinna Moskalenko still does not understand. “We lived in a closed town in the Pskov region, there was neither a court nor a prosecutor's office,” she recalls. -It’s just that I caught my eye with two books: one is the judicial speeches of famous lawyers, and the second is about the woman-investigator “The case is entrusted to you”. When entering the Law Faculty of Leningrad State University, Moskalenko was seriously going to fight crime, went through the investigator in particularly important cases, went to the crime scene, photographed corpses, but in the fourth year, under the influence of her beloved teacher, Professor Polina Solomonovna Elkind decided to become a lawyer: there is always someone to accuse the person, but to protect - not to protect - not to protect - Always. In the 70s, the indictment of justice was almost the same as now, and Professor Elkind spoke about this, not afraid of the consequences.
Moskalenko was taken into the Moscow legal advice on Taganka without Blata: she was again lucky with the mentor - the famous lawyer Boris Zomero, who was sitting with her, was engaged in interns, explaining how to write complaints to the court.
At first, Moskalenko was afraid to speak in court. The People’s Theater on the Forest, where her mother recorded her, helped her to cope with this fear. There she played the main role in the Strange Mrs. Savage, played in vaudevilles and melodramas.
Moskalenko’s affairs led different, but with justifying sentences, as she herself admits, she was unlucky: in her practice he was only one. True, it was possible, speaking in professional legal language, “breaking things”, that is, to ensure that they were sent for a subsequence to the prosecutor’s office, where they were safely “dying”.
Her first processes were mainly in the so -called economic affairs: about bribes, large theft. There were, for example, the famous "attraction" among them. “There was 21 defendant,” Moskalenko recalls. - All of them worked in the Gorky Park: they handed over to the state revenue from the sale of tickets at the highest rate, but they allowed the same tickets to the turn several times. The state received its money, but they earned. It was a private entrepreneurial activity banned in the USSR, they were accused of embezzlement of state property. My client received to the maximum - 15 years. ”
Even then, Moskalenko was indignant at what conditions in prisons contained prisoners, and when, at the invitation of American lawyers, she went to the United States and saw the prisons and courts, she decided that she had to come up with something in order to change the existing Russian judicial system. In a legal consultation on her, they were bored: “restless! When will she get used to it and work like everyone else? " Entering the next business, she convinced her colleagues each time that her client was innocent, and was indignant that in court she could not prove it.
Korinna Moskalenko with the parents of Mikhail Khodorkovsky to complain to the UN, she could not get used to it. Against. Somehow she was offered to protect the coach on the underwater swimming of Alexander Baulin. He was accused of killing his wife, and Karinna was sure: he was not to blame and an accident occurred. It was not possible to prove anything in court: the coach was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Then Moskalenko made his way to the deputy chairman of the Supreme Court Vladimir Radchenko, he looked at the supervisory complaint and reassured: perhaps the case would be revised. After some time, however, an unsubscription from the Supreme Court came: everything is legal and reasonably. “I again made my way to the Supreme Court, they didn’t let me in for a long time, and I said in my hearts:“ I will complain to the UN, ”the lawyer recalls. Her in response: "That you scare us with the Oonams, do not interfere with working!" Moskalenko did not let up: the idea that an innocent person would sit for a murder that he did not commit, did not give her rest.
Through friends, she found out that at the University of Birmingham, you can enter the course of European law. She acted, having previously pulled her rather weak English. In London, she trained in the center where they were engaged in British statements in the European Court. Returning to Moscow, Moskalenko decided to create a similar center in Russia.
It was 1994, Russia was not yet in the Council of Europe, and few people believed in the usefulness of international protection here. Moskalenko laughed at the ideas, considered her an exalted dreamer. The Soros Foundation, despite some skepticism, gave the first grant to the center of international protection it - $ 56 thousand, which she rented an office, bought office equipment and, together with her students - young lawyers - began educational work on international protection: they issued books, brochures, conducted seminars.
“Home” according to the Eurosudus “We received thousands of letters from prisoners who have already passed all instances in the domestic court and could not prove their innocence. They were ready to believe in anything, even in the intergalactic court, ”says Moskalenko. - And we said that Russia will soon join the Council of Europe, they will be able to find justice in Strasbourg, and we will prove that the European Convention on Human Rights was violated against them. When on May 5, 1998, Russia joined the jurisdiction of the European Court, we were already ready. ” The first case that she won in Strasbourg was the case of “Kalashnikov against Russia”, and the court recognized the violation of the three articles of the European Convention-the 3rd, 5th and 6th-“the right to be free of torture and inhuman appeal”, “the right to freedom and personal immunity”, “the right to a fair trial”. The European Court has become a reality for Russians.
“In the professional community, everyone knows who we have the“ main ”in the European court. She was the first to talk about the possibility of using international protection in Russia, ”says retired federal judge Sergei Pashin. - Karinna began to use the decisions of the Strasbourg court in court debates. In this sense, she is a pioneer. In addition, thanks to the publications of its center, transfers of many decisions of the European Court came to us, which were previously inaccessible. ” Now the center leads Moskalenko - 160 of the won cases in Strasbourg. Her students became famous lawyers and also often resort to complaints to Strasbourg
* * Russia has been leading for the past few years by the number of complaints filed in the European Court of Human Rights, and Russian citizens, in the practical absence of acquittal sentences in the Fatherland, hope to find albeit postponed, but still justice. .
The lawyer Ksenia Kostromina says that Moskalenko taught her students unwritten laws of lawyer ethics: “Many lawyers do not remember this today or simply do not want to know this. There are paid things, but there are free according to the 51st article of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Often, lawyers take these cases, do not get acquainted with the client, come to court and only then, in fact, come into business. And Karinna taught us: “Despite the fact that this is free, you should get acquainted with the client, make a dossier, go to prison, there should be no difference between a paid and free business.” And one more thing: Karinna, if she is illegally allowed to the client, he will smash the prison, but he will get to the client. She will fight for her client to the last. ”
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| With her husband Evgeny Knyazev in Strasbourg |
Family life is enthusiastic people who do not make differences between work and home are often difficult in everyday life, and sometimes unbearable. “I will divorce with her, she does not regret herself at all: she works both day and night,” Evgeny Knyazev, Moskalenko’s husband, sighs. For more than six years, they are with two younger children, seven -year -old Asya and five -year -old Grisha, live between Strasbourg and Moscow. In Strasbourg, she studies in doctoral studies, in the same place - a branch of the Moscow Center for Assistance of International Protection. Karinna periodically comes to Moscow to participate in trials. And the last year he has been traveling to Karelia on dates to Khodorkovsky.
“She cannot refuse anyone and takes more and more new cases, writes complaints, but there is no longer enough forces,” continues Eugene. Of course, he is not going to get divorced with his wife. This is such an eternal dive: it is difficult for him to cope with the tireless nature of his wife, he sees that the load on her is large, and the forces are not the same. Eugene is a chemist-physicist by profession, but in recent years it has become bad with work, and the scientific direction that he was engaged in the Research Institute was closed. Therefore, as he says, he was able to leave with his family in Strasbourg.
“With the first husband who was a prosecutor, we divorced as a prosecutor with a lawyer: they became incompatible. And with Zhenya we are like -minded people. Before taking some serious matter, I definitely consult him, ”says Karinna. “So it was with the Khodorkovsky case.”
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If the European Court admits that in the second case, the right of Khodorkovsky to a fair court was violated, then the Supreme Court will be obliged to cancel the sentence
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Moskalenko’s lawyer in the second process in the case of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev in the Khamovniki court, the main client with Khodorkovsky Moskalenko met a few months before his arrest. He invited her to his office to talk about civil society and all about the same international protection that she literally raved. “I told him about ordinary people who come to our center because they cannot defend themselves in their country. He listened to me quite skeptically, not quite understanding what I am talking about. We talked for several hours, and finally he said: "Let's meet." The next time, Moskalenko’s lawyer came to Khodorkovsky on December 22, 2003 as his defender.
The last time she saw him a couple of months ago in the Segezh colony. “He always comes to dates after work. Amazingly peppy. How he succeeds: after all, he gets up early in the morning. Probably possesses deep self -discipline to hold on like that. We speak on different topics, and I study a lot with him. I have categorical in my character, I can expose people, judge. And he is much more tolerant of people, their disadvantages and vices. ”
Khodorkovsky is still restrained to the Strasbourg court and the hopes of Moskalenko to help in his case. But she is sure: the decision of the European Court in the second case of Khodorkovsky will be issued this year. When - does not know. But if the European court admits that in the second case, the right of Khodorkovsky to a fair court was violated, then the Supreme Court will be obliged to cancel the sentence and send the case for a new consideration.
The conflict is interesting, especially since the Supreme Court is now a supervisory appeal of the lawyers of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to the second court verdict. Perhaps, if the Russian government somehow becomes known that in Strasbourg a decision is being prepared in favor of Khodorkovsky, the Supreme Court will play ahead of the supervision and consider the supervisory appeal earlier than the decision from Strasbourg comes.
Mama Khodorkovsky Marina Filippovna does not believe in all these fortune -telling. “I am bad about the European trial,” she admitted The New Times. - We argue with Moskalenko all the time about this. I scold Strasbourg, and she protects him. Maybe in simple, not resonant matters this court helps people, but in such a serious case as ours, there is no. ”
Karinna Moskalenko knows about the skepticism of Khodorkovsky and his mother, but she does not lose hope. The idealists cannot otherwise.
Karinna Moskalenko
A lawyer, human rights activist, head of the Center for Assistance of International Protection, who has been filing complaints to the European Court of Human Rights, since 2003 - Commissioner of the International Commission of Lawyers. Since 2003, it has been defending Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In 2007, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation initiated the case of the deprivation of Moskalenko of a lawyer status, accusing her of violating Khodorkovsky’s right to defense. The Russian Law Chamber refused the Prosecutor General’s Office in disciplinary proceedings. In October 2008, a substance similar to mercury was found in Strasbourg in Moskalenko’s car. The lawyer complained about poor health. A police investigation could not explain how this substance was in Moskalenko’s car. In the summer of 2011, the Moscow Helsinki group nominated Moskalenko among five candidates for participation in the competition for the selection of a Russian judge in the Strasbourg court. Human rights activists with a nomination of candidates were late: in the Bulletin of the European Court, information about the competition was published on August 3, 2011, and the deadline for filing documents ended on August 1, 2011 Moskalenko challenged the conditions of the competition in the Zamoskvoretsky court, saying that as a result of the actions of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, she was deprived of the opportunity to propose her candidacy. Married, has four children and two grandchildren.