Precedent: the Moscow court made an open process "closed" for the media

On the eve of the Preobrazhensky District Court, a precedent was created: journalists were removed from the open process, since they "can put pressure on witnesses and victims" and "violated the rules for accreditation of the media." At the same time, none of these grounds are spelled out in the laws regulating the rules for conducting trials, and therefore, one of the basic constitutional principles - publicity and openness of legal proceedings was violated, the newspaper "News Time" writes.

This incident occurred in the process in the case of the 20-year-old Vsevolod Ostapov, who is accused of applying violence against a representative of the authorities (part 1 of article 318 of the Criminal Code). The representative of the state prosecution called this matter "quite resonant", and it is difficult to disagree with him. It became part of the scandalous story about the brutal beating of eight young people at the Sokolniki police department in April last year.

Then several victims, among whom were minors, applied to the investigating authorities with statements to police officers. The emergency caused a whole wave of indignation: several rallies were held in Moscow against police arbitrariness, human rights activists turned to the leadership of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate with a demand to conduct an audit and punish the perpetrators. The investigation was engaged in the SCP in the Preobrazhensky district. It lasted more than a year and ended in August.

The investigation established the fact of abuse of powers by the Sokolniki police department, but could not establish their individuals, because 14 witnesses (the same ATS employees) completely denied that such atrocities could occur with them. And they did not trust the testimonies of the victims in the UPC on the grounds that they are supposedly anti -fascists and communists and therefore can be considered extremists. At the same time, young people were not even attracted to business as victims, thus depriving them of the opportunity to recover moral damage and damage caused by their health.

But the same UKP of the Preobrazhensky district brought to mind another thing - in relation to one of the victims, Vsevolod Ostapov, who allegedly blurred from the gas spray to the valiant policeman from the Sokolniki policex.

On the day of the police, the young man appeared before court. His case is considered in the Preobrazhensky District Court as deputy chairman of this court Irina Vyrysheva. The small hall of the meeting was scored by the public, mainly by friends and relatives of the defendant, many had to stay in the corridor, because they did not have enough places. After the judge announced the beginning of the hearing and read out to Ostapov his rights, the state prosecutor - the prosecutor of the Preobrazhensky prosecutor's office, Perfilev, made the request "to conduct the process in closed mode, because the media can put pressure on the witnesses and the victim."

Lawyer Evgeny Chernousov protested, noting that the prosecutor did not name a single position of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which would order to make the process closed. However, the judge regarded otherwise and decided to “satisfy partially” the prosecutor’s request - to leave the process open, but delete journalists from the hall.

The attention of Vyrysheva was attracted by a woman with a notebook sitting next to the defendant. Although she claimed that she had come as a private person, she was also ordered to leave the hall, and when she refused, the bailiffs came to the rescue. Two more from the public informed the judge openly that they were representatives of the media. Vyrysheva demanded that they passports and certificates of the press, and then demanded to leave the hall for "violation of the rules of accreditation." On objections to the open process, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Constitution, the judge brought to the debaters "a remark for bothering and violation of order."

However, the newspaper notes, there was no one to put pressure on yesterday - no witnesses, no victim, senior sergeant of the Sokolniki police department Vladimir Tarasov, did not appear to the court, because they did not call witnesses, and the victim affected the patient. Judge Irina Vyrysheva appointed the next allegedly open meeting on December 2.