Translated material
Political pressure: media digest (July 9-16)
"Swamp business"
Mikhail Kosenko left the hospital
“The figurant of the Bolotnaya case, Mikhail Kosenko, who was sentenced to compulsory psychiatric treatment, left the hospital by court order, Interfax reports . On July 2, the Chekhov Court of the Moscow Region decided to transfer Kosenko from inpatient to outpatient treatment, the prosecutor's office did not challenge the court's decision. This means that now Kosenko will be at home. The corresponding petition was earlier made by the deputy chief physician for the medical part of the psychiatric hospital No. 5 in the village of Troitskoye, Chekhov district, Moscow region, where Kosenko was kept.
The European Court registered the complaints of the amnestied Vladimir Akimenkov and Leonid Kovyazin
“The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg registered the complaints of two amnestied defendants in the case of mass riots on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow on May 6, 2012 - Vladimir Akimenkov and Leonid Kovyazin, lawyer Dmitry Agranovsky told RAPSI on Wednesday. “The ECHR has opened proceedings on the complaints of amnestied Vladimir Akimenkov and Leonid Kovyazin. We complain about the violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 11 (freedom of assembly) of the European Convention on Human Rights,” Agranovsky said. According to the lawyer, the issue of considering complaints on a priority basis is currently being resolved.”
And he sent questions to the Russian government in connection with the disappearance of Leonid Razvozzhaev from Kyiv
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 15 :
“The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is investigating on a priority basis the case of the alleged abduction by the Russian special services from Kiev of opposition leader Leonid Razvozzhaev, who was later accused in Russia of organizing mass riots. Corresponding requests, as the lawyers of the “bolotniks” told NG, were sent to both the Russian and Ukrainian sides. In connection with the change of power in Ukraine, the case may acquire interesting details. Experts do not rule out that the "bog case" indicative of Russia in Europe will be turned the other way around, and by a decision on it, the ECHR will demonstrate that it is impossible to freely interpret the law on rallies and persecute the opposition. The Russian government has received 18 questions from the ECHR, and nine questions to the government of Ukraine, Dmitry Agranovsky, lawyer for Leonid Razvozzhaev, told NG. According to him, the consideration of the complaint will be held urgently - the authorities of both states are given only two months instead of the usual four months to respond. The questions concern the kidnapping of Leonid Razvozzhaev from Kyiv in October 2012, for which he then blamed the Russian special services. However, the Investigative Committee of Russia, as you know, accused Razvozzhaev himself of illegally crossing the border. The ECHR, at the request of lawyers, asked the Russian and Ukrainian authorities to find out where and how Razvozzhaev crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border, since there is no data on this in the case, although at that time all checkpoints were equipped with video cameras. The Strasbourg court is also interested in whether Russia had a request for the extradition of Razvozzhaev and what the Ukrainian authorities did to prevent the illegal arrest of the latter on their own territory. In addition, the court requested documents on the investigation of this, in fact, the abduction of Leonid Razvozzhaev from the Russian and Ukrainian security forces, if, of course, the investigation was conducted at all. Questions were also asked about Razvozzhaev's alleged wrongful arrest, wrongful extension of detention, failure to provide medical assistance and ill-treatment during the court hearings. “In matters of the ECtHR, almost nothing has been forgotten in general - both the witness who saw Razvozzhaev being pushed into a car near the Kiev office of the UNHCR, and the trip to Irkutsk for three months after the statute of limitations expired in the “Irkutsk case”, and the charge under Article 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation , when it seemed to Razvozzhaev that the investigator Pleshivtsev from the Bryansk region looked like the man who talked to him in the basement of the Bryansk region, says Dmitry Agranovsky. “Let the Russian government explain to the European Court why investigator Stadnikov, who conducted the check on the abduction of Razvozzhaev, did not even attach documents from the Ukrainian branch of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the explanation of a direct eyewitness to the abduction.” According to Agranovsky, the main task of protecting the Bolotniks is to conduct an independent investigation by the Russian authorities and officially confirm the abduction of Razvozzhaev. In addition, if it is proved that during the trial Razvozzhaev was subjected to inhuman treatment, the verdict of the Russian court (it will be announced on July 24. - "NG") will lose its significance. Recall that in the European Court there are actually dozens of complaints from the defendants in the “bolotnaya case” - participants in the opposition rally on May 6, 2012, who were arrested and spent more than a year in a pre-trial detention center on charges of mass riots. Correspondence between the ECtHR and the Russian authorities has been completed on complaints of arrest, illegal detention and inhuman treatment, lawyers say. And this means that the decision can be made any day. Next, a complaint will be sent to the ECHR against the first sentence of the defendants in the case, who received from 5 to 6 years in prison for participating in the demonstration. The “bolotnaya trial” in the European Court can become a show trial on the contrary, advocates say. If in Russia it was aimed at intimidating the opposition and weaning people from expressing their views at rallies, then the European “bolotnaya case” can become a model of how the law cannot be used against dissenters. No matter how you interpret the laws, it is impossible for an outside observer, be it an American, a European, a Hindu, and so on, to explain what the defendants in the Bolotnaya case did and why they had to be tried for two years, says Agranovsky.
The extension of the arrest of Razvozzhaev and Sergey Udaltsov was recognized as legal
“The Moscow City Court left under arrest Leonid Razvozzhaev and under house arrest Sergei Udaltsov, the main defendants in the case of preparing mass riots on Bolotnaya Square, RIA Novosti correspondent reports from the courtroom. Thus, the panel of judges rejected the appeal of the defense of the accused, who insisted on a milder measure of restraint. Meanwhile, the court attached to the case file documents from the European Court of Human Rights, which is to consider the complaint of Udaltsov and Razvozzhaev. Lawyer Dmitry Agranovsky noted that he hopes that these documents will be read in the Moscow City Court, because earlier the court refused to attach materials from the Strasbourg Court. On July 24, the Moscow City Court is to announce the verdict to Udaltsov and Razvozzhaev, whom the prosecutor's office demands to be sentenced to eight years in prison each for organizing mass riots.
About the "Case of Four"
defendants in the dock “ There are four - anti-fascist Alexei Gaskarov, national democrat Ilya Gushchin, deputy director at the publishing house Alexander Gushchin [correctly Margolin] and pensioner Elena Kokhtareva. They are charged with participation in mass riots and the use of violence against a representative of the authorities. Margolin and Gushchin pleaded not guilty. Gaskarov does not deny that he grabbed the leg of a policeman, but he does not agree with the qualification of this action as a criminal offense. Elena Kokhtareva fully admitted her guilt. She told Novaya Gazeta that she did it because in exchange they promised to consider her case in a special order. She no longer associates herself with the protest movement: at the moment she is worried about the fate of Western Ukraine, in between meetings she proves that Russia should not be a democratic state and is in conflict with the activists who came to the court. The pensioner is the only one of the defendants who is under house arrest and can move freely around the city. For two months, the prosecutor's office interrogated the injured police officers - as in the first trial. Yelena Kokhtareva apologized to the riot policeman Semchenko, he has no complaints against her, just like the injured riot policeman Bazhanov had to Margolin. But there were more witnesses who identified Gaskarov: in addition to the police, three secret witnesses testified. Nikolai Sharapov, head of the department of regional security in Moscow, spoke in court, arguing that the action was agreed not on Bolotnaya Square, but on Bolotnaya Embankment. We watched videos, including the broadcast of the MinaevLive program. Everything is like a year ago, at the first "trial of the twelve". Gaskarov and Kokhtareva decided to testify immediately, so that later they would be able to refer to them and supplement them. Aleksey explained that he did not beat the police, but protected the demonstrators from them. Elena Kokhtareva, in turn, said that a crush had formed on the square, it was impossible to get out, but she did not beat anyone (“because the Russians already have a lot of enemies”). On Tuesday, July 8, the Zamoskoretsky court began interrogating defense witnesses. There are about two dozen of them, according to the lawyers of the defendants, and interrogations will take about two weeks. The meetings lasted three days this week. One of the applicants for the May 6 rally, Sergei Davidis, Alexei Gaskarov's fiancée Anna Karpova, her parents, Novaya Gazeta journalist Nadezhda Prusenkova (all of them were on the square in the same company with Alexei Gaskarov), a member of the Solidarity movement Ilya Yashin, Olga Miryasova from the Institute of Collective Action, Larisa Artemova (she was treating Gaskarov's wound) and Stepan Yakovlev, who just participated in the procession that day. Basically, the witnesses recalled what was happening on the square with Alexei Gaskarov. Many saw how he rushed to drag the policemen who were beating the demonstrators. And then he himself received a boot on the head from an riot policeman. Artemova added that the police beat the protesters, but did not detain them afterwards, but threw them on the pavement. Witness Yakovlev mentioned a fundamentally important detail: policeman Ibatulin, who suffered from Gaskarov, did not go to the doctors when he left the crowd of demonstrators with a wound. Prior to this, classified witnesses claimed that it was they who assisted the victim. At the request of Ilya Gushchin, at a meeting on Thursday, the conclusions of forensic medical examinations regarding the three injured riot policemen were announced. It turned out that they were not injured on May 6. Judge Natalya Susina rejected the motion to change their status in the case. But on the other hand, she attached a study on the tactical and special actions of OMON officers on Bolotnaya Square, prepared by Igor Burmistrov, a consultant at the Department of Operational Combat and Physical Training of the North-Western Institute for Advanced Studies of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia. The study refers to the incorrect arrangement of the chains of law enforcement officers, the unjustified narrowing of the passage, which inevitably led to a crush and a breakthrough. After the public announcement of Burmistrov's expertise, he was suspended from work at the institute .
Later, Gushchin said that he partially admitted his guilt - in terms of using violence against a representative of the authorities, but stressed that the violence (he pulled the riot policeman up by the uniform) was caused by the fact that the riot policeman beat a man lying on the ground
Navalny
About searches at Navalny's supporters
“Georgy ALBUROV, FBK employee. Search - July 9, "picture" case:
— <…> They called me at the door at about nine. They said it was either a package or a subpoena… But it was clear that this was a search, in the two years that I have been living in this apartment, they had never bugged me with packages since the morning. I called the lawyer, but he did not pick up the phone, and then I opened it. They started from the bedroom: they shook all the books. But they didn’t climb to see what was on the cabinets. And in bed, under the covers, I could hide at least ten laptops - they didn’t look there. Bathroom, toilet also looked carelessly. They aimed primarily at equipment, the documents were of little interest to them, they were only overlooked - suddenly they would find instructions from the State Department. They took away two laptops, an iPad, an iPhone. We discussed for a long time whether to seize my Ipod Nano, whether I could hide information on it. But the camera was not found at all, at the end of the search I myself remembered that I had it - I had to somehow copy the protocol. From what they can find on my electronic media, I do not expect a blow. I was searched by an investigator for especially important cases, an FSB officer (the case of the theft of a poster is under the control of the FSB, yes), a handyman from the Investigative Committee (he is also in some rank, but he is engaged in digging up your things) and two witnesses. The handyman simply took out things - if he found something related to the computer, he showed it to the FSB operative, and he assessed the importance of the find for the investigation. At two o'clock they were done. In general, I did not notice a difference in the apartment before and after the search. Maybe I just haven’t cleaned for a long time ... But no one threw things out of the closets, didn’t throw them on the floor. There were no threats, no pressure. Prior to the start of the search, they calmly let me get through to a lawyer, the phone was taken away just before the start of the actual investigative actions. I was even offered to copy the data I needed from the seized computers. I took everything calmly: I had been waiting for this search for two weeks. I expected that there would be a search in the apartment in Ufa, where my mother lives, but it was not, thank God. <…>
Olga GORELIK, wife of Konstantin Jankauskas, who is under house arrest. Search - May 23, in the Yandex.Money case:
- <...> The search itself began at 7.23 - for some reason I remember the time when the doorbell rang. “There was a murder in your stairwell, we need to interview you.” The husband replied without opening it: "It's too early, and we still haven't heard anything." And they keep ringing the doorbell. “Stop hooliganism, a municipal deputy lives here,” says the husband. “Oh, MP! And we are to you with a search. We are not the first year in politics, we know that they should not be allowed in until the arrival of a lawyer. They say from behind the door: let's see who is faster, your lawyer or our grinder. In general, we kept them under the door for three hours. I erased all sorts of videos with dances and songs from my phone so that later videos with awkward plots would not appear on LifeNews. Grandmother - we live with her - wiped the Navalny stickers from the closet. We called our parents, but none of them stubbornly picked up the phone. And then we realized that, therefore, they also came to them and forbade answering the phone. This was the most unpleasant moment - we began to worry about their health. But it turned out that they withstood all this much better than we expected. They were not at all ready for the search, but my dad quickly got ready and began to quote Vysotsky to the investigators - something about cops and witnesses. While we were waiting for a lawyer, friends and journalists gathered at our door. The ground floor is very convenient in terms of searches: Kostya gave a whole press conference from the balcony. When the lawyer arrived and we let the investigators in, they went into our apartment as if they were in hiding: “Why are they so angry with you that they are shouting at us?” It was with them that our comrades from the headquarters of Zyuzino, the "Party of December 5" and the "Party of Progress" communicated. The investigators did not have a goal to intimidate and turn the apartment around. Well, we walked in boots, just think, our guests do the same. They didn’t throw things out of the closets, they didn’t “gesture”, they weren’t rude, they even joked with us. They said: "Understand, we have work." We understood that once there was a search, there would be consequences, and they would hardly leave us alone. But I won’t say that I was scared or hurt during the process: the expectation of the search was much more nervous. We even offered them tea: one investigator, a joker, drank two cups of coffee, then even started pouring himself some. While we were waiting for the car to take Kostya for interrogation, the investigators told stories from their work, for example, about the concept of “objective truth”: you need to look for evidence of the guilt and innocence of the suspect, it turns out, they said, some kind of schizophrenia. My husband talked about his deputyship - they listened with respect, but this does not mean anything. They may even agree, but if they are told - sew him 10 years, they will do everything. This joker investigator kept trying to get us to talk about politics, but we understood that everything could be used against us.
Nikolai LYASKIN — search on May 23, in the Yandex.Money case:
“It all started with a call from my sister at half past seven in the morning. She was alone in her parents' apartment, pregnant, and she was almost kicked in the door with her feet. "What to do?" I say: do not open, now I will come with lawyers. While I was getting dressed, and my doorbell rang. But polite people came to me: “Nikolai Nikolayevich, please open it.” I know that one must always wait for lawyers, but I wanted to open them up here, so that there, at my sister's, they would also behave more calmly. She was greatly frightened there: they grabbed her by the hands, one of the people who came pushed her. And my investigation team behaved perfectly, I even asked them to call there, the investigators at my sister's, and tell them to calm down. After that, the sister says, the man who pushed her disappeared from the apartment somewhere. Everything went in the correct order for me. My sister's things were pulled out, scattered. They even asked me out of politeness if it was possible to see: I opened it myself, pulled it out, then put it back in place. There was no such thing as in films that everything was lying on the floor - here my sister had a decent mess. <...> However, they did not get into underwear. So they said: “In general, of course, it would be necessary to turn it over, usually everything is hidden here. But we won't." They relied on my integrity. While the search was going on, friends and acquaintances arrived at the entrance. And the investigators ordered the concierge to let only those living in it and representatives of the UK into the entrance. Therefore, during the search, a mini-rally of people who just needed to get to the entrance also gathered under my windows. <...> Then they took me for interrogation, they apologized a little: “We don’t know why we were sent to you, we usually deal with economic crimes.” They wanted me to be in their position. But I know that this is a standard wiring. <…>
Tatyana SOLOMINA, lawyer of the Moscow Bar Association, legal expert, who conducted a seminar on conduct during a search at the FBK:
- Under the current law, investigators have the right to do everything. They can even come with a search without a court order, motivating it with extreme necessity - this is exactly what they did in the case of Alburov. They can take whatever interests them. They come with a search in the case of the painting - and they take away all the gadgets. Or, for example, they take away personal letters and photographs, having come in the case of mass riots. The duties of the investigators during the search are to bring witnesses and leave a copy of the protocol. As a rule, this is observed. Pushing someone being searched, as they did with Lyaskin's sister, is Article 286 of the Criminal Code: abuse of power. But there will be no consequences: I tried several times to initiate a case under this article - it did not work, they always cover for each other. Investigators are not required to maintain order in someone else's apartment or clean up afterwards - this is spelled out in job descriptions. Yes, they can invite a person to voluntarily give out certain items before turning the apartment upside down. But often they themselves do not know what exactly they are looking for. Also, dumping things on the floor is intimidating.”
prosecution
About the case of Ruslan Kutaev
“ On February 19 , at about 10 o'clock <am> ..., Daudov called again from the subscriber number 8-XXX-X88-88-88 to my other number, who was interested in why I did not appear. In turn, I explained that I would arrive on February 21 or 22 ... He interrupted our conversation with the statement "well then." Considering the tone in which it was said, I regarded it as a threat and realized that he would be looking for me... <Soon> after that... I became aware that officers from the Achkhoi-Martan District Department of Internal Affairs came to my place of residence, who were looking for me and intended everyone < deliver my brothers to the Achkhoy-Martan District Department of Internal Affairs.” On February 20, in the village of Gekhi, in the courtyard of his relative's house, Ruslan Kutaev was detained by the Kadyrovites (employees of the A. Kadyrov PPSP) and taken to Grozny. “We drove for 25 minutes at high speed. Upon arrival, they communicated by radio and said to raise barriers ... I assumed that they had arrived on the territory of some kind of government <complex> ... After removing the jacket from my head, I noticed that we were between two two-story red brick buildings, if they show me these buildings, I will be able to recognize the place...
... Daudov Magomed and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic Alaudinov Apti ... began to kick and punch all over the body and head. As a result, I lost consciousness, but when I regained consciousness, I heard Daudov Magomed ordering me to be thrown into the basement ... At about 10 pm, a guy came in ... He was 180 cm tall, aged 30-35 years, of a dense build, a rounded face with a red beard ... On the little finger of his right hand he had a signet of white metal with a pattern in the form of a "Crown". This guy took out handcuffs from a black briefcase, a folding knife with a blade of about 40 cm with a black plastic handle, as well as an object in the form of a TV remote control, using which <putting a knife to my neck> he passed electric charges through my body ... threats <that> cut off my head. Then he demanded that I sign all the necessary documents.
... A criminal case on charges of Kutaev in possession of a narcotic substance on a large scale was initiated on February 20. And it begins just with the "necessary documents" that Ruslan was forced to sign. What is the alternative, they explained in the ORJ of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic, where Kutaev was taken after being tortured in the basement of the “government building”: “ Three people in civilian clothes talked to me, who introduced themselves as employees of the ORJ of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic ... Apparently, they were also under pressure, since the persons who delivered me were in the next room… These officers advised me to give a confession, since at any moment I could be taken back to the basement and after that I would simply disappear. "You have to officially show up somewhere." So they said. I am a human rights activist and I know very well that in Chechnya, if a person is not officially reported to any police department after being detained, his traces disappear without a trace.” (From the explanations of Ruslan Kutaev to the investigator for especially important cases of the investigative department of the investigative committee of Chechnya.) ... For the first time in my memory, the Chechen Investigative Committee reacted to the publication in Novaya Gazeta and, on its own initiative, authorized the check. <…>
Anyone who reads the theses of the speech in the debate of lawyer Zaikin (although this is as much as 23 pages) will understand: Pyotr Ivanovich left no stone unturned from the accusation. The innocence of Ruslan Kutaev has been fully proven, although this did not affect the verdict. It happens. Especially when it's political...
“Do you understand who actually needs to be charged with drug trafficking?” Igor Kalyapin burst out laughing. - Witnesses for the prosecution - six police officers and two witnesses - testified in court that they did NOT see the contents of the bag. And they couldn't see him. Firstly, none of them were in the village of Gekhi on February 20. Secondly, they did not conduct any personal search, during which heroin was allegedly found on Kutaev. But then where did heroin come from? <…>
PS On the eve of his appearance in court, the head of the administration of the head of the Chechen Republic, Magomed Daudov, arrived at the Urus-Martan Police Department. Late at night, well-known people came to Ruslan Kutaev's cell - Lord's guards - and dragged him somewhere. Ruslan thought, of course, to kill. He read the last prayer and rushed to the one who tortured him in the basement of the “government building”. Before they knocked him to the floor, he managed to put a black eye on the executioner. Only when the desperately resisting Kutaev was dragged into the office of the head of the Urus-Martan police, did he realize that they had been brought not to execution, but to negotiations. The Lord suggested: Ruslan pleads guilty and asks Ramzan Kadyrov for mercy. And at the trial, Magomed Khozhakhmedovich sent a very clear signal to Chechen justice: “Every person can make mistakes ... Ruslan Kutaev is not my enemy ...” ... Judge Dubkov sentenced Ruslan Kutaev to four years in prison in a general regime colony. Four years for a crime that never happened. For a previously unconvicted 57-year-old father of five children, four of whom are minors and two are visually impaired. Moreover, even for Chechen courts, conditional sentences under Article 228 have become common practice. However, Judge Dubkov did not confine himself to a real prison term and read the patter further: "... Upon serving the term, Kutaev is subject to a year of restriction of freedom with a ban on participation in mass events ..." That is, the politician and public figure Ruslan Kutaev was legally banned from participating in political and public public activities. The ban on politics is proof that the trial in the Kutaev case is political, and nothing else. This verdict is so contrary to Lord's signals that it involuntarily suggests that someone from Kadyrov's entourage understood the benefits of the first political prisoner in Chechnya. After all, one can always remind Kadyrov to whom exactly he owes this dubious pleasure... »
The Commissioner for Human Rights stood up for Denis Levkin, who was convicted of violence against a policeman while protecting a warehouse in St. Petersburg
“Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Ella Pamfilova supported the cassation appeal of Denis Levkin, defender of the Varshavsky railway station warehouse. The corresponding document was sent by mail to the presidium of the city court of St. Petersburg, Levkin's associates report. Recall that in February of this year, the court found Denis Levkin guilty of the fact that on February 4, 2013, being among the defenders of the Warsaw warehouse, he struck two policemen with a metal rod. The defense of the young man, in turn, considers the sentence unfair, since the court was presented with photographs that, according to the lawyer, fully prove the innocence of his client. Note that the young man was sentenced to 4 years in a penal colony.”
Member of the International Committee for the Defense of Boris Stomakhin Arrested
“ Today it became known that the Ulyanovsk human rights activist, member of the International Committee for the Protection of Stomakhin (KZS) Sergey Kryukov is in the Ulyanovsk pre-trial detention center. Earlier it was reported that contact was lost with him , but associates were sure that he could be arrested or kidnapped by the FSB. Unfortunately, the worst assumptions were confirmed, and thus the first hostage and political prisoner appeared among the members of the Committee. On July 11, civic activist Vyacheslav Fochenkov on Facebook posted that he had found Sergei Kryukov in a pre-trial detention center, where he has been held since June 18. He sent him a transmission and noted that "maximum publicity and legal assistance is needed." In recent letters and publications, Sergei Kryukov reported that they were trying to summon him for interrogation in cases related to his publicism on the Chechen issue, as well as in connection with the active support of Boris Stomakhin and, in general, with public condemnation of the Putin regime. Earlier, in 2009, Sergey Kryukov was already subjected to persecution , including by methods of repressive psychiatry. The current arrest is linked to a case initiated by the FSB of Chechnya. Earlier, the International Committee for the Defense of Stomakhin published a statement in which he linked the disappearance of Sergei Kryukov with the general trend of escalating arbitrariness and repression against dissent in Russia. In it, he demanded that the Russian authorities immediately release Sergei Kryukov and called on human rights activists, politicians, journalists, and all people of good will to support this demand.”
Krasnodar environmentalist Yevgeny Vitishko awaiting court consideration of the prosecutor's office's proposal to cancel the decision to replace his suspended sentence with a real one
“July 8, 2014. At my place of work in the field during a lunch break, together with the head of KP-2, Colonel of the Internal Service Korotkevich V.U. an employee of the Tambov Regional Prosecutor's Office arrived at my office in KP2. He took an explanation from me regarding my statement on the Internet about the massive violation of the rights of convicts, which I witnessed on May 20, 2014. On the same day, the cassation presentation of the Prosecutor's Office of the Krasnodar Territory of 04/07/2014 and the decision on the transfer of the cassation presentation with the criminal case for consideration in the court session of the court of cassation of 05/13/2014 were brought to me. I was notified of the scheduled court hearing on July 16, 2014. I wrote a statement to the court about my desire to participate in the court session and about the participation of my lawyer Marina Dubrovina in the session. I do not yet know how my participation will be ensured, since in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, this should have been brought to me no later than 14 days before the appointed time. According to the stamp on the documents, the information was received by KP-2 on 07/03/2014. I also do not want the court session to be postponed to a later date. I am ready for the meeting to take place even in my absence, with the representation of my interests by lawyer M. Dubrovina and civil defender E. Shmakova.”
The meeting was rescheduled for August 4
“ The trial of environmentalist Yevgeny Vitishko is dragging on. Consideration by the regional court of the cassation presentation of the Deputy Prosecutor of the Krasnodar Territory Kruglov and the cassation appeal of the lawyer Vitishko Dubrovina to cancel the decision to change the suspended sentence to a real one did not take place. Due to the cancellation of the meeting scheduled for July 16. The next meeting is scheduled for August 4th. The meeting was actually disrupted by the leadership of the Tambov colony-settlement, which for some reason could not organize a conference call with the convicted Vitishko. Apparently, "Skype" failed, or through what they were unable to turn it on. <...> Recently, as the activists of the Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus found out, the leadership of the colony-settlement (CP) No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Tambov region, where Vitishko is being held, imposed a disciplinary sanction on him for allegedly “negligent attitude to work ". Plus to this - a series of reports about "violation of internal regulations." According to Yevgeny Vitishko, all this is a kind of revenge for his reports about the beating of prisoners in the colony. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's office of the region unexpectedly submitted to the Krasnodar Regional Court a submission on the court decision to replace the environmental activist's probation with a real one. In particular, she demands that the decision of the Tuapse District Court, which replaced the suspended sentence imposed on Vitishko during the first round of trials, be canceled by three years in a colony-settlement.
- I think that the court of cassation will cancel the decision. For my part, I filed a cassation complaint, where I outlined the whole picture of what happened earlier, - says the lawyer of the convicted environmentalist Marina Dubrovina. <…>
Regarding today's attempt to hold a court session, Dubrovina said that the colony administration had enough time to organize a conference call with Vitishko. He was informed of the time of the meeting on 3 July. However, the authorities of the correctional facility for almost two weeks allegedly could not find a free computer for this.
Omsk blogger and human rights activist charged with fraud
“The Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs managed to resume the criminal case against the Omsk blogger, the leader of the movement “For Your Rights” Sergey Selivanov. It's a long-standing case - a little more than a year is left before the expiration of the statute of limitations on it (10 years). The essence of the crime imputed to the suspect (“fraud on an especially large scale”, part 4 of article 159 of the UKRF) is as follows: in 2005, one of the Omsk entrepreneurs handed over to another a promissory note in the amount of 10 million rubles. He cashed it out, after which, as usual in such cases, he disappeared. Two months later, when the security forces discovered him, he testified that he acted on the instructions of Selivanov, who at that time was also engaged in entrepreneurship, and gave the money to him. It is documented that at the time of the events Selivanov was in the hospital - he was undergoing treatment after an attack on him by unknown persons, the consequences of which, according to medical reports, were “a concussion, a crack in the skull, a brain hemorrhage, a neck injury, a spinal injury, an injury kidneys, liver, intestines. The police never found the attackers: according to Selivanov himself, she basically could not find them, since this attack was connected with his refusal to pay money to the police - for the same reason, in his opinion, it was initiated against him in 2005 criminal case. Then, the law enforcement agencies failed to bring this case, built entirely on the words of a person who was seen in the appropriation of a valuable document, to court. In 2006, it was suspended and recently resumed "due to newly discovered circumstances." As Sergei Selivanov told Novaya Gazeta, he suspects these circumstances - for many years of entrepreneurship, and later human rights activities, which he engaged in after his entire business (base, warehouse, store) was taken away from him with the help of the same authorities, he studied them tactics and strategy. According to him, a second witness appeared in the case, serving time in a colony, who decided to tell law enforcement officers the truth that he had been hiding for almost 9 years: this person has no other choice due to his stay in places of detention, that is, in an absolutely dependent position. In general, the plot of the Selivanov case coincides almost one to one with the case of the Omsk businessman Kurmilev, which was covered by Novaya three years ago, in particular, in the article “Process at the stage of schizophrenia” (July 6, 2011): we recall that it was initiated, as Kurmelev wrote in statements addressed to the Prosecutor General, Chairman of the ICR, President of the Russian Federation, when he asked the head of the regional Organized Crime Control Department to return the money borrowed from him for building a house: two months later, due to lack of evidence, the investigation was stopped and resumed after 6 years, which coincided with the release on YouTube of the film “Omsk Auschwitz” (about the detention of prisoners in pre-trial detention center No. 3), which was filmed by an entrepreneur, by the way , together with blogger Selivanov. As a result, for appropriating the unfinished hangar and garage, which, according to the decisions of the arbitration, Kurmelev always belonged, he received 3 years in prison (recently, after serving two of them, he was released on parole). The nine-year-old Selivanov case became relevant for the Ministry of Internal Affairs after he held a series of protest actions and the appearance of entries in his blog, in particular, about the possible involvement of law enforcement officers in the murder of one of the best boxers in the country, Ivan Klimov. Also, the human rights activist believes, they could be outraged by publications on some Internet sites, where he talked about the disappearance of 116,000 bottles of counterfeit vodka: the fact of its disappearance after being seized by the police was confirmed by an audit of the federal ministry, the blogger writes, but no one was punished for this.