“You will sit like potatoes in a garden...”

The story of Marina Kolyakova, a young woman from the city of Mtsensk, sentenced to 12 years for "inflicting grievous bodily harm resulting in death," should be included in criminal law textbooks as an example of the degradation of the Russian judicial system. However, this is only one of hundreds of similar stories about broken destinies, which are almost impossible to change within the framework of Russian law.

On May 8, 2001, on the banks of the Zushi River, Marina Kolyakova and 14-year-old Stas Chekalenkov found the corpse of old Boris Smelkov, a well-known pickpocket in Mtsensk. The day before, the old man received a pension and treated Marina and Stas with wine. Marina then went for a walk with a friend in the city park, and Stas stayed. As often happens, suspicion fell on those who found the body. First, the investigators demanded that Marina slander Stas, and then he himself slandered her. His testimony kept changing: now he said that Marina beat the old man with a muffler from a car, and then with an exhaust pipe from a motorcycle. And in court, he completely retracted his words. A forensic medical examination showed that with this method of murder, all Kolyakova's clothes should have been covered in blood. A forensic biological examination testified: no drops of blood were found on the young woman's clothes. Marina pleaded not guilty. Testimony from other witnesses corroborated her alibi. The Mtsensk City Court (an unprecedented case!) acquitted the defendant twice. But the third judge found her guilty. Although no new evidence has emerged in the case.

Judge Yevgenia Maslennikova, who acquitted Marina, explained why the guilty verdict was handed down: “In this case, our entire system was reflected in a drop of water. If you are in the field of view of the court, you will sit like potatoes in the garden. Two acquittals - marriage at work. Marina was convicted because they were afraid that she would demand compensation for the months spent in prison.”

Judge Maslennikova turned out to be right in the main thing: seven years have passed, but none of the higher courts wanted to look into this matter. All complaints written by one of the best Moscow lawyers received replies. Vladimir Lukin became interested in Kolyakova's case. It was he who advised her to apply for a pardon to the president. Marina wrote, although she was dissuaded in the colony: the president de pardons only those who admit their guilt, and only those who are imprisoned for minor crimes.

This practice, however, is contrary to Russian law. Nowhere is it said that those who ask for the highest mercy should repent of their deeds. That the jailers forget about this is not surprising. The fact that the president-lawyer insists on this is on his conscience. In the petition for pardon, Marina pleaded not guilty. She only asked to feel sorry for Alina, her 11-year-old daughter, who does not know that her mother is in prison. “How can I confess to something I didn’t do?” Marina explained her refusal to repent.

And then I realized that there would be no pardon. Medvedev will not pay attention either to positive references from the colony, or to a letter of support from Vladimir Lukin, or to the governor's goodwill.

Kolyakova's mother, Nina, called me, holding back tears with difficulty, shouting into the phone: “She was called from the workshop to the colony's police department. Everyone said goodbye to her, thinking that she had been pardoned. But the president's refusal was read to her. When Marina is released, Alina will be almost 16 years old ... "