“Even in Africa this is impossible!”

On April 4, the Moscow City Court postponed consideration of the New Times magazine's appeal against the decision of the Presnensky Court, which awarded the magazine and correspondent Zoya Svetova a fine of 1 million 100 thousand rubles for the article "Plagiarism in robes" (No. 36–37 of 11.11.2013) . The lawsuit was filed by retired judge Yuri Bespalov and Moscow City Court judge Dmitry Gordeyuk.

When you read the statement of claim, as well as the document “Objections to the Appeal” submitted for consideration by the Moscow City Court, it is difficult to get rid of the feeling that people with a legal education could not write such a thing. That's just one phrase - but what! — from the text of “Objections”: “The article (“Plagiarists in robes. — Auth.) is riddled with hatred towards judges and Russian scientists, evokes anger towards the person who administers justice and the person who carries out pedagogical and scientific activities.” Or: “Firstly, the idea and spirit of the title permeates every line of the article, and secondly, slander concerns the personal life of the plaintiff Bespalov: the right to a name, the right to a type of activity.” God forbid, no one touched any personal life of the plaintiff Bespalov, especially his right to a name and his occupation. The plaintiffs, a retired judge and an acting judge, stubbornly talk about libel, as if they don’t know that libel is a criminal offense (Article 1281 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and no one has charged us with a criminal offense. And what he presents is painfully reminiscent of newspapers from the late forties. Are we already there, at that time?

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“The plaintiffs did not find the strength to attend the trial either in the first instance or in the second”

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And it is also curious: the plaintiffs did not find the strength to attend the trial either in the first instance or in the second, although the office of the same judge Bespalov is located in the Moscow City Court on the floor below the courtroom where our appeal was heard. Around the same place is the office of Judge Gordeyuk. Moreover, they did not even consider it necessary to send their representatives, apparently regarding the court itself as such. I am sure that by ignoring court hearings, plaintiff judges put their colleagues in an extremely uncomfortable position, showing them obvious disrespect. I can hardly imagine another country in which either a claim or an appeal on it would be considered by a court without the plaintiffs or their representatives. Especially if the appeal is considered by judges of the same court where they served or serve. I think even in Zimbabwe Mugabi it would have been a bad ride. Why was the meeting postponed? It seems to me that the Moscow City Court has given some thought to this problem, and perhaps even doubted the grounds on which the court of first instance ruled to recover from an independent magazine a huge amount of 1 million 100 thousand rubles. What motivated such a sum? I would like to believe that on April 22 the Moscow City Court will impartially consider our appeal. If not, well, there is the Supreme Court, there is also Strasbourg.