The latest evidence of the defendants' guilt was presented in the Kirovles court

At the next court hearing in the Kirovles case, the prosecution presented the latest evidence of the defendants’ guilt. At the end of the meeting, lawyers and prosecutors did not agree on the question of which of them should interrogate Alexei Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov first.

Photo: Sergey Brovko, Kommersant / buy photo

The thirteenth hearing in the Kirovles case began in the Leninsky District Court of Kirov with a discussion of the petition filed the day before by the defense of the defendants regarding the impossibility of announcing the verdict of the ex-general director of Kirovles Vyacheslav Opalev, who was previously sentenced to a suspended sentence in this case, as not related to the evidence of Alexei Navalny’s guilt. and the head of the Vyatka Forestry Company, Pyotr Ofitserov. Judge Sergei Blinov, opening the meeting, said that he considered it possible, however, to hear this document. “The court found that Opalev committed theft,” representatives of the state prosecution began to read out the previously pronounced verdict. Messrs. Navalny and Officers were not directly mentioned in the verdict; only certain “N” and “O” were mentioned in it, but this did not prevent us from understanding who they were really talking about. In many ways, the verdict against Mr. Opalev repeated the indictment in the case of Alexei Navalny - in particular, the court, having examined in a special manner the case of the ex-general director of Kirovles, came to the conclusion that the cooperation of the state company he headed with VLK was unprofitable.

How did the 12th hearing on the Kirovles case go?

The two volumes of written evidence that were then read out contained dry characteristics of both accused. In particular, listeners could find out that Pyotr Ofitserov has not previously been brought to criminal responsibility, is not registered in a mental hospital, and is also the father of five children, three of whom are minors. About Mr. Navalny, in turn, the court was also informed that in 2011–2012 he was repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility “for violations related to holding rallies and meetings.”

When the volumes of written evidence against the defendants were read, their lawyers made another attempt to exclude Mr. Opalev’s conviction from the evidence. “The court established the guilt not only of the ex-head of Kirovles Opalev, but also of the adviser to the governor “N”, who, of course, is Navalny, and the head of the VLK “O” - respectively, Ofitserov,” lawyer Olga Mikhailova read out the petition. The goal of the defense in this case was to remove this process from the prejudicial case of Mr. Opalev, since if the verdict had been attached to the case, the fact of committing a crime would in fact be recognized as proven. Judge Sergei Blinov did not heed the defense’s arguments and rejected the petition, however, making the remark: “The verdict (in the Opalev case —Kommersant ) cannot prejudge the guilt of individuals.”

After this refusal by the judge, the state prosecution announced its desire to interrogate the defendants, but in this case, the upper hand remained with the lawyers. “According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, defendants must first be interrogated by lawyers,” insisted Pyotr Ofitserov’s defense attorney, Svetlana Davydova. “Are you asking us to work on the side of the prosecution?” - she asked judge Sergei Blinov, who at first did not see anything reprehensible in the early interrogation of Messrs. Navalny and Ofitserov. As a result, the interrogation was canceled, and the presentation of evidence against the defendants was completed. After a short discussion about when the next hearing should take place (the lawyers insisted that they could not be present in Kirov on June 13 and 14, as well as June 19 and 20), Mr. Blinov decided not to announce a pause in the process. The next meeting will open on Thursday, so Mr. Navalny will miss not only the opposition march scheduled for June 12, but also, with a high degree of probability, the nomination of his candidacy as a candidate for mayor of Moscow by the capital branch of the RPR-PARNAS party, scheduled for Friday. On Thursday, the defendants' lawyers will begin presenting their arguments in court, and first of all they will interrogate Alexei Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov.

Ilya Barabanov

Lawyers and prosecutors do not divide Alexei Navalny