The trial of Viktor Korchagin

On July 26, the Timiryazevsky Court of Moscow continued the hearing of witnesses and experts in the case of Viktor Korchagin, a well-known preacher of anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity, accused under Article 282 of the Criminal Code based on materials from the magazine “Rusich” he published.

The accusation is supported , in particular, by activists of the Union of Orthodox Citizens (UCU), who are more concerned about Korchagin’s anti-Christian than national-chauvinist propaganda.

Following the meeting on July 26, the LNG Analytical Center released a statement in which it expressed outrage at the anti-Christian speeches of witnesses and defense experts. Accordingly, Korchagin and his defenders, the famous national radicals Stanislav Terekhov, Alexander Sevastyanov, Vladimir Avdeev, are considered by the authors on a par with Yuri Samodurov and others accused of “blasphemy” (in the authors’ terminology) in the case of the exhibition at the Sakharov Museum.

Representatives of the LPG declare that the very use of blasphemous arguments in court is no longer acceptable and call on the patriotic public to pay special attention to the Korchagin trial, otherwise “the Gospel is protected from dirty attacks by politicized pagans, the head of the association of Jewish organizations, Mikhail Chlenov, who was summoned by the court as an expert, and our patriotic organizations pretend that nothing is happening."

In this regard, representatives of the LNG again called for legislative consolidation of “the role of traditional faiths, and first of all, the Church.”

On July 27, V. Korchagin himself was interrogated in court. He pleaded not guilty, either in whole or in part. In his opinion, since most of the materials in the collection “Rusich-3” were published in the newspaper “Russkie Vedomosti”, which was closed by court decision in July 2002, he cannot again be accused of inciting religious and national hatred on the pages of this publication.

V. Korchagin did not admit charges of calling for the deportation of Jews, although he mentioned that in 1995 he sent B.N. Yeltsin received a letter with a proposal about this.

V. Korchagin’s defense is based on the results of an examination conducted by an employee of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Philosophy E.I. Stepanov and his colleague, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences A. Samarin, who did not find “incitement of national and religious hatred” in the materials of the collection “Rusich-3”. However, interrogated at the trial as a specialist, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences S.A. Arutyunov questioned the results of the work of these experts.

"Rossiyskaya Gazeta" cites a typical exchange of remarks between prosecutor Tatyana Kondratyeva and V. Korchagin, which took place in court:

• When you published on page 86 of the magazine that Jesus Christ was “paranoid and an idiot,” did you take into account the feelings of believers?

• If a person comes now and says that he is the son of God, what diagnosis will you give him?! And “idiot” in Ozhegov’s dictionary is interpreted as “stupid person,” and this is not an insult.

On October 15, experts E.I. Stepanov and A.N. were supposed to speak in court. Samarin. However, they did not show up.

The court adjourned until October 27. It is expected that V. Korchagin will be sentenced at the next hearing.

On November 24, the Timiryazevsky Court of Moscow sentenced Viktor Korchagin to a year of suspended imprisonment, finding the editor of Rusich guilty of inciting ethnic hatred. Due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, the court released Korchagin from punishment.

Chief Rabbi of Russia (FEOR) Berel Lazar expressed “great concern” over the verdict. “It is alarming that in this case the principle of mandatory punishment for a crime did not work,” said Berl Lazar, noting that “the court drew a fairly clear line between anti-Semitic incitement, insulting the people, on the one hand, and “freedom of speech” , on the other side".

Sources

• Neo-pagans and national extremists are trying to turn the trial of Korchagin into a trial of the Bible, God and the Church // United Fatherland. 2004. July 26.
• Stenin A. What is printed in type cannot be cut out by the court? // Russian newspaper. 2004. July 28.
• The trial of the writer Viktor Korchagin continued // IA PRIMA-News. 2004. October 15.
• THE COURT SENTENCED THE EDITOR OF THE MAGAZINE "RUSICH" // RIA "Novosti" TO ONE YEAR'S SUSPENDED IMPRISONMENT . 2004. November 24.
• The Chief Rabbi of Russia is concerned about the court verdict in the case of the editor of the magazine "Rusich" // Religion and Society. 2004. November 24.