"Beat the Khachey" and examination

To date, not a single "extremist" case can do without conducting scientific expertise. The opinion of scientists is requested on all stages - from the prosecutor's check to the court.

Sometimes the situation becomes anecdotal. Above the slogan "Bey khachey", written on a military monument in the Amur region, fought a team of scientists-experts from the Far East and Kharkov universities. To interpret this inscription, five expertise (sociological, cultural, ethical, linguistic and stylistic and political science); as a result, there showed signs of ethnic hatred. What an honor for a teenager from city ​​of Skovorodino I think the final text should have been attached directly there on the monument under the slogan. It's a pity that's just forced him paint over the city authorities forcibly.

Public money is spent on the examination, its implementation is delayed and without that long legal processes. But the quality of these examinations is not amenable to any criticism. What is worth only one story in a scandalous famous case of the attack on Tagir Kerimov and Suleiman Ramazanov in Petersburg. Initially a specialist from the Center for Forensic Expertise The Northwestern District failed to see in cries like "beat the blacks chock!" signs of inciting hatred. After that, a scandal erupted, and a new examination was carried out at the Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N.I. Lobachevsky, who recognized racist motivation crimes. But this is not the end of the matter, now there is also a third expertise. And all this despite the fact that in such a case the need conducting a special analysis in general raises serious doubts.

The scientific expert does not bear any responsibility for his assessment. Scientific the illiteracy of most of these writings has been repeatedly criticized. There was even a somewhat utopian proposal about the introduction of professional responsibility for the carried out somehow expertise, the creation of something like a professional council that would considered especially scandalous cases.

As for legal liability, an expert can be involved just for giving false evidence. But show me a man who will look for "false evidence" in hard-to-read scientific text. Yes and Questions to scientists are most often asked not according to their specialty, but such questions as: "Does the text contain signs of extremism?" or "does this excite call for hatred to anyone?". However, such legal questions experts cannot answer.

Legal assessment of texts and statements should be given not by academic scientists, but investigators, prosecutors and judges. But the officials law enforcement, apparently, also do not want or cannot make their own decisions. Moreover, the level of competence of our law enforcement officers is also leads to sad thoughts. Well, how can you refuse help? experts, if the lawyer at the high-profile trial in the Tikhonov case - Khasis in The Moscow City Court cannot characterize the book of the well-known racist David Lane, confiscated during the search, as "nationalist".

In conclusion, I can only once again repeat the point of view of colleagues: the existing law does not require such a massive involvement experts. And in general, if we are talking about public calls for "extremist activity", then these calls should be clear to the to a wide range of people, including the investigator and the judge. If this call can be revealed only with the help of complex scientific analysis, attracting educated scientists, then the effectiveness of such propaganda, exactly as well as its public danger, is reduced to zero. Of course there are exceptions, but not as many as the requested expertise.

As a result of the incompetence of law enforcement officers, their unwillingness to take on responsibility and personal (almost always) self-interest experts and there was such a mutually beneficial symbiosis. Sources

• Yudina N. Bey khachey and expertise // Grani.ru. 2011. March 1