Translation of requalification

I am not a professional lawyer, in no way do I pretend to be a specialist in this field, and certainly cannot be an expert in this particular case. I am just an ordinary citizen who for the last forty years, with an absolutely amateur interest in the history and practice of justice, has been reading materials from trials over the past several centuries in Europe and North America. And only from these positions I want to share my thoughts about what happened with a certain Vladimir Makarov. About which, I emphasize once again, apart from the name, surname and information published in open sources, I know absolutely nothing. I haven’t even read the criminal case and I don’t intend to read it, which is rare for me, as a curious person, but it’s important here, because just as fundamentally this case has nothing to do with the essence of the issue.

Only facts are important here and only generally known ones without nuances and details. A man was sentenced to 13 years for raping his own six-year-old daughter. The evidence base of the prosecution, on which the verdict was based, seems to me to be nonsense of such low quality that even an attempt to reproach a neighbor for drinking an extra bottle of beer cannot be based on it. But my opinion in this case is insignificant and is provided for reference only. The defense of the convicted person formulated its assessment of all the facts in more detail and skillfully, after which it filed a cassation appeal with the Moscow City Court. Based on the results of the hearing, the judge decided to reclassify the charge to a more lenient one and found Makarov guilty not of violence, but of committing indecent acts of a sexual nature. On the new charge, the man received five years in prison.

Now let's do it again. Just let’s not delve into all these inevitably professionally necessary nasty things for the lawyers I respect, such as “with penetration”, “without penetration” and other monstrous physiology. And in a very simple way, but at the same time, in an adult way, without closing our eyes and stopping our ears, no matter how disgusting the facts being discussed are for us.

If a father used his own six-year-old daughter in any form and in any way to satisfy his lust, then I consider thirteen years an inadequately short period. But I do not protest against it in any way, since it is so defined by the legislation in force at the time of the crime, and I can only advocate for changing this legislation in the direction of tightening it under this article.

And if there is no evidence that this father committed the above-mentioned bestiality with his own six-year-old daughter, then such a person is innocent by all legal and human laws.

I have not seen any other options in life, in specialized literature, or in other literature. Until yesterday. When the court, in fact, left unchanged the recognition of the charge in one of the most terrible crimes, it “reclassified” it and reduced the sentence of the criminal by almost three times.

This has never happened anywhere. In ordinary language, such a sentence is translated as follows: “The man is not guilty, but since we cannot admit this for a number of reasons that are none of your business, we give him the minimum term that allows us not to lose face.”

Yes, I forgot to specify which language it was translated into. Yes, to ours. On ours with you. And just don’t tell me in this language of ours, continuing to delve into all these non-existent traces of spermatozoa that discredited pseudo-psychologists saw in children’s drawings of phalluses and underpaid conclusions of an allegedly polygraph examiner, that the higher court simply adjusted the interpretation of the available evidence and therefore, completely in accordance with the law, commuted the punishment. We can not only speak this very language, but also perfectly understand what is said.

Just as we understand perfectly well what actually happened. And it happens all the time.

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