Translated material
The court is unshakable
Alibi did not stop sending the defendants to a maximum security colony
The military judge sent a strict regime of accused with Alibi to the colony, which he himself, during the judicial investigation, helped to prove. Reading the verdict, he allowed himself an expression that shocked the participants in the meeting: “The court does not hesitate”
The defendant Batyr Bakhmudov (left) is photographed with friends 800 km from the crime scene
The verdict was appointed at noon, but time passed, but there was no judge. Seven people were sitting in the small hall of the 235th military garrison court. The atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of the protracted expectation of the teacher on the retaking of the exam: in the air the nervousness of some and the boredom of others was felt, but the present was too few to fill the whole space with energy.
There were no victims in the hall, only their representative. Lawyers employed in another court sent their assistants. One of the defendants sent his parents home, "so as not to be nervous." The parents of the other defendant live too far, and he decided not to call them. There was, of course, the prosecutor. "Where is the judge?" - Interested in the assistant judge. "In the Advisory Room."
The verdict, the adoption of which was expected from judge Sergei Serdyukov, deserved much more attention, because there was every reason to believe that this could be an acquittal, so rare in Russian courts. The fact is that the accused under Part 3 of Article 111 (“intentional infliction of serious harm to health”) had serious alibi: at the time of the crime, they, according to the testimony of numerous witnesses, photographs and data of billing, were 700–800 km from the place of its commission, in the company of acquaintances and friends in crowded places. During the almost year of the judicial investigation, Judge Serdyukov interrogated many of these witnesses, introduced photographs to the case, requested and received mobile operators about the location of devices and SIM cards. He introduced the audio recordings to the case, on which the victim persuades the witnesses to give false testimonies against the accused, he held an exit meeting at the scene. Finally, during the process he freed from the guard of one of the defendants, who by that time had spent more than a year in the pre-trial detention center-and for well-acquainted with the system, this is a sure sign that a person will not fall back. From Serdyukov they were expected to be a sentence corresponding to the conducted judicial investigation.
At two in the afternoon, the chairman was still empty. “In the deliberative room,” the polite bailiffs smiled. “Cooking.”
Crime. First version: self -propelled gun
On the night of August 8, 2010, two sailors from the military unit near Moscow in Ostafyev, having drunk vodka, went into a navigation to the neighboring village of Shcherbinka. There they had a conflict with one of the passers-by-either because of a certain girl, or because of a cigarette that someone refused to give someone. The quarrel went into a fight, as a result of which Private Roman Shemakin was very beaten. His comrade Sailor Kosarev managed to run, he got to the unit and called for help: Shemakin was found in a ravine in a pool of blood in a severe state and taken to the hospital (he suffered several operations before he recovered and got to his feet). Kosarev told all this to his colleagues and superiors, as well as the father of the victim (the court’s materials contain an audio recording of the conversation) and during interrogations of the operative department of the threat of Shcherbinka Lieutenant Baybus: the sailor approximately described the attackers and even helped to compose a photograph of one of them.
The next morning they announced that “Shemakin was running away, he was beaten, he was in the hospital and now everything is strictly”, and soon the commander of the Navy (part is subordinate to him) signed the dismissal of the security company Alexander Galkin for the CPS. He filed a lawsuit, proved that at the time of the incident he, Galkin, was in the Far East. The company at work was restored, because they considered the incident that the court established as follows: "In the absence of control by the duty service and command, Shemakin arbitrarily left part and departed in Shcherbinka, where he had a conflict with unidentified civilians, overgrown with a fight." The court did not consider any other version of the incident.
Crime. Second version: Hazer
But some time passed, and the main witness Kosarev unexpectedly and very sharply changed the testimony. There was no self -supplier, he said, the senior military - Ensign Batyr Bakhmudov and Lieutenant Alexander reservation beat the senior officer - Ensign Batyr. Everything happened in the unit on the territory of the subsidiary farm, and then the bloodied sailor was taken by car of Bakhmudov towards Shcherbinka and thrown into the ravine. Kosarev was taken in the same car, he himself was not beaten, but threatened with reprisal if he tells how everything happened. At the same time, the mother of the battered, who allegedly heard the names of the military from the son who came to herself, and then the victim himself spoke about this: his testimony was rather confused, but he referred to strong failures in his memory caused by injury to his head.
The story of grandfathers became interested in the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg (in the hospital, another crippled soldier, who had already received assistance from the St. Petersburg committee, was in the hospital next to the battered sailor, and he brought them). With the filing of human rights activists, the history of a beaten soldier appeared in Novaya Gazeta in St. Petersburg, and then in the Military Secret program on REN TV.
A criminal case was instituted against Bakhmudov and Razkrodov, the court arrested Bakhmudov at the request of the investigator, who claimed that he threatened the victim. Both of the accused swore in their innocence, but outside the part of the part did not really believe them: a story about the brutal beating of a soldier by senior in rank seemed too typical and widespread for Russia.
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They had a conflict with one of the passers-by-either because of a certain girl, or because of a cigarette that someone refused to give someone
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Shemyakin received compensation for a million rubles - most of the money, according to his mother, went to pay for medical bills. The lawyers of the defendants, however, are sure that the reason for the reservation of their clients in this is precisely this: compensation would not have been supposed to be affected in a female.
The version of the beating in the unit very quickly became the main and only, despite the large number of unresolved contradictions, for the investigation. So, despite the fact that the victim was very seriously beaten, no traces of blood from the trailer or in the trunk of the Bakhmudov car, which was shown by the witness, was not found. Two spent the night in the trailer that night, none of them heard noise. Yes, and the car, as the witnesses later showed, was in the repair during the incident and stood disassembled in front of everyone.
There were two witnesses who claimed that they saw Bakhmudov and Rybrodov in the unit (there were much more those who showed that he had not seen either the other), but not a single witness who would hear screams, or saw at least a distance, or saw traces of blood, or an attempt to get rid of traces of blood.
No one was able to explain the strange things that were happening with the telephone of the victim Shemakin, who disappeared into the night of the beating: the device was found by police officers from a cafe employee in Shcherbinka, who said that he was presented on August 8, and he could not explain where he took him. But in the passport photograph of this person, the lawyers of the defendants found some resemblance to the photobot of the attacker, compiled from the words of the sailor Kosarev. However, this strange coincidence did not interest the investigator Omarov, who eventually got the case and who brought him to court: later in court he honestly admitted that he did not even investigate this version. It was not possible to fix the deficiency at the judicial investigation: both the woman and the man were not local - they soon disappeared from Shcherbinka.
Alibi
But the main evidence of the innocence of the accused was an elementary and rather serious Alibi: both of them were on vacation during the beating. Official (the court has vacation tickets) approved by military authorities. Bakhmudov - in the Volgograd region, resembling - in Saratov. Numerous witnesses saw both there. Bakhmudov was photographed with friends on the City Day in Mikhailovka of the Volgograd region, and everyone remembered that it was exactly 7 on August, on the eve of the beating. Friends sat in a cafe and celebrated almost until the morning. The photographs, of course, are mediocre, the background does not say anything, but it is easily checked where all people captured on them were. There are photographs on the way - with the date of August 9, then the three of Bakhmudov returned to Moscow: he was already informed of the incident.
Both of the accused swore in their innocence, but outside the part of the part did not really believe them: a story about the brutal beating of a soldier seemed too typical
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Rastodov in the village of Krasnaya Kudryavka, Balashovsky district of the Saratov region, was seen by neighbors and relatives, as well as the district police officer and chairman of the village council - in a tent with friends and girls in a pond. “The ponds were buried with fry, and the chairman and I went up to see if there were poachers,” the former district police officer Alexander Kotov recalls on the phone. “We drove up, and there the tent stood, and they rested there, there were still girls with them.” - "Do you remember what the number it was?" - “A lot of time has passed since I cannot say. It seems to me that 8 (August), I remember exactly that that day there were a woman of our alone, Raisa Vasilievna. It was hot, then buried on the second day. "
The death certificate at the disposal of the editorial office is the date - August 6, 2010. This means that the former district police officer and chairman saw Rastyov in a tent on the pond on August 8.
Judge Serdyukov heard the testimony of witnesses with interest, asked additional questions to the defendants, watched photos. He sent requests to telephone operators with a request to determine the location of the devices. Official answers received him: on the dates of interest, the phones were in roaming. In the Saratov region and the Volgograd region.
In response to a request from Judge Serdyukov, the safety director of Megafon confirmed: the number of Bakhmudov was in roaming in the Volgograd region
Ella Polyakova from the Committee of Soldiers' mothers to believe in Alibi the defendants refuses. “Well, understandable. No one replies that the boy is mutilated ... Have you seen photos from the matter how he looked after beating?! Let someone be responsible for this !!! Let the officers are responsible for this. Roma (the injured Shemakin) was with my mother on TV. What he says is true. And what you see according to fake documents is Krivda. Yes, of course, they have good lawyers (defendants) ... "
Lawyers really did a great job. In the case, there are not only the testimonies of all witnesses and photographs, not only the data of telephone operators, but also the audio recordings, on which the victim persuades the colleagues to say that they saw Rastodov and Bakhmudov on the eve and after the incident (the copy is at the disposal of the editorial office).
On the day of the sentence, the lawyer Bakhmudov Evgeny Korchago said that he could not drive up - he has urgent cases in another court, and here everything is clear: the verdict will be acquittal. In general, Korchago’s lawyer heard conversations on the sidelines of the court that Serdyukov was going to judge honestly, despite the pressure from above. It seems that one of the bailiffs even heard him in such words and answered the chairman.
Repentance and forgiveness
To say that Lieutenant Alexander Rastodov never raised his hand to the soldier would be not true. Four months before the incident with Sailor Shemakin, he publicly beaten the ordinary Ilya Shiparov. He got a lot and drunk allowed himself some impudence to the commander, for which, in the words of Rastodov himself, he "gave him a bream." This episode, which occurred in the dining room of the military unit, also appears in the case, moreover, in the verdict he is given almost as much space as the main episode with Shemakin, although the judge Serdyukov determined the punishment of it “below the lower limit” - at the request of the victim himself, who admitted to violation of the charter and asked the judge to show his offender. Speaking with the last word, the Lieutenant of Rastov repented of his deed and asked the former subordinate forgiveness. He said he forgave. “I understand perfectly well that if we were in the unit at that time (during the incident with Shemakin), then we would have been sitting for a long time,” said resembling an hour before the sentence. “No one would believe us that this is not us.” But we were not there, there is all the evidence. I would be ready to go to jail for what I did. But I did not do this. "
He arrived in the car and without things for the verdict. He was sure that he would be justified or in extreme cases would be given conditionally - for Shiparov. The ensign Bakhmudov came with the girl, they met almost immediately after he was released from the pre -trial detention center, and have been living together for a year. He did not prepare things with himself either.
Real terms
Judge Serdyukov entered the hall about four. All the few those present in the hall stood up. “The name of the Russian Federation ...” - began the presiding judge and, having read the first few paragraphs of the sentence about who and what he is accused, suddenly broke away from the papers and suggested: “Let's sit down” - after which he sank tiredly to the chair.
The verdict was small, his reading took only 25 minutes. This was not an acquittal.
From the sentence of judge Sergei Serdyukov
The court took the testimony of Shemakin and the witness of Kosarev, since they are “consistent, consistent with each other, consistent in the main and significant details”, of course, there are contradictions in the testimony of both the victim and the main witness, but they “do not affect this conclusion of the court”. “The fact that Shemakin asked his colleagues to confirm the fact of the finding of Rastodov and Bakhmudov in the military unit cannot refute his testimony ... The circumstances that the telephone belonging to Shemakin had nothing to do with the military unit, and that the car that was exported by Shemakin was not established, also did not refute the testimony of Kosarev” (the sentence of the sentence was preserved). The testimonies of witnesses from Red Kudryavka and Mikhailovka that they saw the defendants during the commission of a crime 800 km from the place of its commission, "the court rejects, because they are not true, and believes that the witnesses are mistaken in the dates." The court rejects, does not take into account, the testimony does not affect the conclusion of the court ... And suddenly: “The court does not hesitate ...” said so: he does not hesitate? Maybe you misheard?
The deadlines are real. Bakhmudov - five years of strict regime. Results - six and a half. The bailiff crushes a hat in his hands and seems to sigh. Quickly and almost silently, a convoy enters the hall. "Can I call mom?" - asks Razkodov. “No longer,” the escort replies. The assistant lawyer Korchago writes him an urgent SMS. In the coming light turmoil, Judge Serdyukov leaves the hall - none of those present looks in his direction. However, trying to guess emotions on the face of a Russian judge is an ungrateful case.
After the sentence
"Tell me, what to do?" - He asks, sitting in his office, Korchago's lawyer. He addresses himself rather than to his interlocutor. On the table in front of him lies the verdict of Judge Serdyukov, who pronounced two people with proven alibi to five and six and a half years in a strict colony. The verdict is open on the page where it is printed in black and white: "The court does not hesitate." “If, with such an evidence base, the court shall be a conviction, then what to do to prove innocence? To pour yourself with gasoline and set fire on Red Square? " - "You do not regret that you were not on the verdict?" “I'm even glad,” Korchago admits. “I'm afraid that I could not restrain myself.”
“No one replies that the boy is mutilated ... Have you seen photos from the matter how he looked after beating?! Let someone be responsible for this !!! Let the officers are responsible for this "
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The day after this conversation, a message appeared on the ribbons of news agencies about an attempt to self -money near the Supreme Court building in Moscow. A man with burns of 25-30% of the body saved by bailiffs sent to the hospital, and at that time a source in law enforcement agencies explained to Interfax that the victim has been under investigation since 2010, repeatedly filed complaints with the courts, and an attempt to self -immolation was a gesture of despair. He died later in the hospital.
Korchago’s lawyer, of course, will not burn himself - he has a family, clients. A few days after the sentence, he will appeal to the decision of Judge Serdyukov to a higher authority. The appeal is almost ready - in three years, Korchago’s lawyer studied all the case file well. She will go to court, perhaps even earlier than Judge Serdyukov will move to his new office in the Third District Military Court: at the end of July, by order of President Putin, he went to improve.
Photos provided by Maria Aismont