Plotnitsky was frightened of the camera

The Freedom Judicial Reporter is about the interrogation of the head of the "LPR" in the case of Nadezhda Savchenko

The head of the self -proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic Igor Plotnitsky was expected at the process of Nadezhda Savchenko from the very beginning of the interrogation of witnesses of the prosecution. He is declared in the indictment, almost all his subordinates from the Zarya battalion, which he commanded in the summer of 2014, had already performed - either personally present in the courtroom, or by video communication from Voronezh. By today's meeting, Plotnitsky remained the only witness to the prosecution that had not yet testified. As a result, his performance was accompanied by so many restrictions on broadcasting, which turned, according to the expression of lawyer Savchenko Mark Feigin, into "the same ritual event as the whole process."

The testimony of Igor Plotnitsky brought almost nothing new. The lawyer Ilya Novikov directly stated this after the meeting. The head of the self -proclaimed republic only repeated the testimony given during the investigation. Savchenko was captured during the battle on June 17, 2014 by the fighters of the Zarya battalion, commanded by Plotnitsky. The accusation insists that when Savchenko was stopped by the LPR militants, she found a map of the terrain, phones and SIM cards, records and documents in her backpack, which allegedly indicated that the Ukrainian soldier performed the functions of an artillery fire adjustor. According to investigators, journalists and refugees from the village of Metalist who made their way to Lugansk fell under this shelling. Savchenko did not directly blame Plotnitsky, gently answering that he personally did not seem to be an adjustor. In general, the line of behavior that the witness chose was reduced to the fact that orders were only received from him, and he was not responsible for how they were fulfilled. The main episode of the prosecution, the circumstances of which Plotnitsky could clarify - illegally crossing the border, he also neatly bypassed. Plotnitsky said that he ordered the fighter with the call sign “KEP” (this is one of the witnesses that was questioned earlier) so that he would give Savchenko a telephone, a SIM card, took it to the area of the Severny village and let it go. What happened to the girl later - Plotnitsky allegedly does not know.

The interrogation of the head of the self-proclaimed republic was unexpectedly short, perhaps due to the fact that he strictly adhered to the protocol of his early interrogation during the investigation, and tried to reduce any specific questions to near political reasoning. Without explaining the reasons, the court satisfied Plotnitsky’s request to conduct an interrogation closed and removed from the hall of the meeting not only journalists, but also employees of the Ukrainian consulate. The prosecutors were not satisfied with this and filed a petition to ban audio recordings (that nonsense for Russian courts), and also asked to ban the lawyers to conduct a twitter broadcast and make a hand. Judge Leonid Stepanenko went even further and actually forbade lawyers to comment on the meeting in the media and social networks.

In general, it seems that Twitter of the lawyers, the prosecution - and the court - are more afraid than evidence of Savchenko’s innocence. Apparently, because the judge may not attach evidence to the case, as it was already during the process and how, obviously, he will be in the future, and he cannot ban Twitter. However, when Feigin managed to photograph the protruding Plotnitsky and posted the photo on the network, the prosecutors demanded that the court issue a private ruling to bring the lawyer to criminal liability for violation of the claim of the court. Stepanenko did not answer this, but, most likely, the definition will issue - along with the sentence.

I expected to see a low person, but no, Plotnitsky - a man is quite unscrupulous, but with his principles. Savchenko feels it

“The interrogation was not by chance in closed mode, our fears were confirmed that Plotnitsky and his curators in the Kremlin did not want his testimony far from truthful from the truth,” Mark Feigin said after the meeting. “Plotnitsky was certainly afraid of the attention of the press. The person was very seriously preparing for the performance, studied in detail the biographies of lawyers, our personality, our personality, our personality, our personality, our personality, our personality, our personality, our personality Commented on our activity in social networks.

When the judge read out the request of Plotnitsky about the closed meeting, indicating that the head of the self -proclaimed republic was a public person, Savchenko objected: "I am also a public person, a deputy of the European Parliament. But I'm not afraid of anything, but what is he afraid of?" Lawyer Nikolai Polozov also wondered: "There are no SBU fighters who could detain Plotnitsky, there are snipers on the roofs, special forces in the building, what is he afraid of?" “If the court decides that the meeting will be closed, this is a certificate of insufficient security. Do not disgrace your country,” Savchenko turned to the court, but the court did not listen to her.

The most important statement by Plotnitsky in court is, of course, not the memorized repetition of the protocol of previous testimonies, but an indirect confirmation of the death of the militants of the Zarya battalion, who fell under the shelling on June 17, 2014. The fact that there were dead separatists was clear from the document - certificates from the morgue of Lugansk, which was brought together with other documents in the case of Savchenko to investigator Dmitry Manshin. The document is in the case file, but the court carefully bypasses this topic. The Plotnitsky death of his subordinates confirmed, but stated that he did not remember their names, he remembers only the call sign. Judging by the testimony of Viktor Denisov, the operator of VGTRK, who was at the place of shelling with Kornelyuk and Voloshin and was recognized as the victim, the militants on June 16 took up the equipment of the fire position at the intersection of a metallist.

“The shells that killed Russian journalists not aimed not in a group of refugees, not for peaceful people, but in that group of armed people in which journalists were in misfortune,” Ilya Novikov noted. “For Korneluka and Voloshin, this is an accident, for those who fought on the side of the LPR, they knew what they went on. Actually, in fact, on the fact of the death of armed people Savchenko is not presented, but they try to shut up this fact to create visibility: they shot at peaceful people.

In addition, indirect recognition, lawyers from Plotnitsky did not achieve anything else. He behaved with restraint, talked more with Savchenko than with prosecutors. Savchenko commented on each of the prosecution questions, and Plotnitsky answered her. “Although Plotnitsky hope the enemy was evident that they did not sympathize with each other, they respect each other in some way,” Novikov said. “We saw in this hall of people who lied - and enjoyed the fact that they lie. I expected to see a low man, but no, Plotnitsky - a man is quite unscrupulous, but with his principles. They felt it as an officer at each other. The officer, at least, did not have contempt for each other, that Plotnitsky tried to not deceive without the need to deceive. "

The interrogation of Plotnitsky actually completes the work. It remains to announce the results of several examinations and, possibly, interrogate the experts who conducted them, read a certain amount of case materials, but this will not bring anything new to the process. According to the lawyers of the defendant, in a week or two they will begin to present their evidence of Nadezhda Savchenko. Ilya Novikov suggested that the court will be sentenced at the beginning or mid -December, but it seems much more likely that Savchenko will be convicted either on the eve of the New Year holidays or in early January. Both that, and another, the court and the court will be completely arranged, which, it seems, are trying with all their might so that the process does not attract excessive attention.

Anton Naumluk - special correspondent of Radio Liberty in Donetsk (Rostov Region)

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  Anton Naumluk

  Foreign Correspondent RS