Lawyers spoke in the debate on the case of the foundation activist

In the Berezovsky City Court, the debate between the parties in the criminal case of Igor Shabalin, who was responsible for rehabilitation at the women's center of the City Without Drugs Foundation, ended. According to investigators, the defendant unlawfully deprived nine patients of their liberty, one of whom died. Today, the defendant's lawyers spoke and insisted on his full acquittal. According to their version, the state prosecution failed to prove the crime in the actions of Mr. Shabalin.

The Berezovsky City Court continued the debate between the parties in the criminal case against Igor Shabalin, who was responsible for rehabilitation at the women's center of the City Without Drugs Foundation. Let us remind you that he is accused of nine counts of unlawful deprivation of liberty of the center’s rehabilitators (Article 127 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the investigation, he, together with the vice-president of the City Without Drugs Foundation, Evgeniy Malenkin (since November last year, has been on the international wanted list), in 2011-2012 illegally deprived of liberty the patients of the women's center of the City Without Drugs Foundation, as a result of which one of the rehabilitators, Tatyana Kazantseva, died. According to the state prosecution, she was not provided with medical care on time and died in the hospital from meningitis.

The day before, a representative of the state prosecution outlined his position on the case, who in fact completely repeated the indictment and asked the court to sentence the defendant to five and a half years in prison. Today, his lawyers spoke in defense of the defendant.

How the Drug-Free City began the debate

For three hours, Mr. Shabalin’s defenders tried to defeat the prosecution’s position. “The fact is that, in our opinion, the entire accusation is based on the conjectures of investigators and the emotional assessments of what is happening by the victims themselves. The state prosecution did not conduct a legal assessment of the facts presented at the court hearing,” explained one of the defendant’s defenders, Natalya Dolgaleva. In addition, lawyers questioned the legality of classifying Igor Shabalin’s actions as a member of a group that was involved in the abduction of patients of the foundation. “As follows from the case materials, he acted in conspiracy with Evgeniy Malenkin. However, the investigation does not have any testimony proving that Mr. Malenkin gave any instructions for the theft of girls. All of Mr. Malenkin’s instructions boiled down to the fact that he asked to make food for himself and indicated where to plant carrots and potatoes,” the lawyers explained. The lawyers also reminded the court about the 15 defense witnesses they brought to court. “The fact is that everyone we managed to find told the court that there was no detention of people in the center. All these people voluntarily left the foundation after they told the center’s management that they no longer wanted to be here. And all the victims in the case admitted during the trial that they did not independently initiate their departure from the center,” Igor Shabalin’s lawyers emphasized. After hearing representatives of the defense, the court scheduled the defendant's last word for November 18.

Why is the foundation's vice president being persecuted?

On May 22, a new criminal case was opened against the vice-president of the Yekaterinburg City Without Drugs Foundation, Evgeniy Malenkin, who is on the international wanted list. According to investigators, in 2009 he purchased heroin, which was then planted on a certain resident of Yekaterinburg. Read more

Why do drug-free city rehabilitators demand to be released from treatment?

In May, another City Without Drugs rehabilitator accused the foundation’s management of illegal imprisonment. A young man from Samara said that he was forced to sign an application for rehabilitation in a “dubious organization” in Yekaterinburg and record his voluntary consent on video. According to him, rehabilitators are constantly subjected to beatings and insults from fund employees. Read more

Igor Lesovskikh, Ekaterinburg

"City Without Drugs" played in defense