Judicial relapse

Colleagues again put the mantle on Sergei Pashin

Yesterday's meeting of the High Qualification Board of Judges (HQJC) ended with yet another reinstatement of the famous lawyer Sergei Pashin, who worked in the Moscow City Court, to the judiciary. For the fourth time in the biography of Sergei Pashin, colleagues decided his fate.

The first time this happened was almost three years ago. The Moscow Qualification Board of Judges excommunicated him from the robe, and then its decision was confirmed by the Higher Qualification Committee of Judges. However, after Pashin appealed to the Supreme Court, his status was restored. In addition to his legal career, Sergei Pashin became famous as a human rights activist and an active critic of the existing legal system. His colleagues considered neither one nor the other unacceptable. And if the first time a formal reason was found for Pashin’s resignation - he was accused of violating procedural law, now the accusation was formulated directly. The reason was the participation of Sergei Pashin in another trial as an expert. He wrote an opinion in the case of Dmitry Neverovsky, who demanded the replacement of military service with an alternative one. The conclusion was added to the case, and the guilty verdict was overturned. The second point of the “charge” was Sergei Pashin’s speech on the Ekho Moskvy radio station. During the broadcast, he gave his phone number to a listener who asked for advice.

Like last time, Sergei Pashin appealed the decision of his Moscow colleagues to the Higher Qualification Committee, which did not find “corpus delicti” in his actions. To a certain extent, this case answered the question: whether or not a judge can engage in open public activities. Many well-known lawyers believed that by acting as an expert, Sergei Pashin violated “discipline.” Moreover, doubts have been expressed whether a “human rights judge” can remain objective in the process. By canceling the initial verdict, the VKSS, it turns out, resolved these doubts.

Philip STERKIN