Translated material
Navalny in court
In the Leninsky court of Kirov, on February 2, the interrogation of the defendants - Alexei Navalny and Pyotr Officerov - in the case of the embezzlement in the Kirovles company continues. The head of the Corruption Foundation said that "the accusation is absolutely false, fabricated and has political motives." On the eve of February 1, the accused was chosen by a preventive measure in the form of a subscription about a non -departure from Kirov until February 10. Such a decision was made by Judge Alexei Vtyurin.
Radio Liberty conducts video broadcasts from the courtroom:
Alexei Navalny stood on the rostrum, with which they give evidence, already in the second half of the judicial day on February 2. The oppositionist for several minutes talked in detail about how and why he arrived in Kirov in 2009. According to him, then the post of governor of the Kirov region, Nikita Belykh, needed help to figure out what was happening in the region with state property - in particular, with Kirovles. “One of the main headaches was“ Kirovles ”. They took loans in Sberbank to pay their salary. The company was unprofitable, it would not be necessary to bankrupt - it would be its natural outcome,” said Alexei Navalny. According to him, he found out that the head of the company Vyacheslav Opalev could not competently manage the enterprise: “I found out that a criminal group was created inside Kirovles: Opalev, his daughter and accountant. When I found out, the question arose not only that Opalev could not manage the enterprise, but also deserves a criminal case. This was used against me.” According to Navalny, the case against Opalev was initiated on his initiative, and then, when the political situation changed and Navalny himself became the accused, Opaleva was invited to testify against him in exchange for a conditional term in this case.
After the prosecutor’s office asked Alexei Navalny a few questions about his relations with the Vyatka forest company (VLK) and after that completed his part of the interrogation, the oppositionist was indignant: why he was not asking where he spent 16 million rubles, which, as the accusation claims, Navalny stole from Kirovles. “You don’t ask, because you know that this was not,” Navalny concluded and later turned to the judge: “Maybe you ask me something, your honor?” The judge also had no questions. “I am glad to work with you in the same team,” Navalny summed up with smiling and left the witness of the rostrum, freeing his place to Peter Officer.
Peter Officers also talked in detail about how his Vyatka forest company began work with Kirovles, about what difficulties were when concluding contracts, and that Kirovles could not provide products. According to Officer, the VLK remained “Kirovles” a certain amount of money, however, the arbitration court could not recover this money from them, since “Kirovles” stupidly had no documents, worked like in the village. ” Officers said that in the case there is not a single document proving their guilt with Navalny, and called this matter fabricated. After the defendant completed his story and the parties had to ask him questions, Judge Alexei Vtyurin unexpectedly interrupted the meeting: “Sorry, but I recorded last week ...” And, despite the indignation of the lawyers, I postponed the meeting on Friday. The lawyer of Peter Officer Svetlana Davydova regarded this decision of the judge as a changed tactic and an attempt to drag out the process. She did not exclude that the judge could stretch the remaining meetings until February 10 - until the end of the subscription on the wonness of Navalny and Officer from Kirov. Alexei Navalny said that the process is “not just with the indictment, but with a predetermined decision.”
The process is not just with the indictment, but with a predetermined decision
According to the prosecution, Alexei Navalny, being an adviser to the governor of the Kirov region, together with Peter Officer organized the theft of ten thousand cubic meters of forest, and this caused damage to the budget of the Kirov region in the amount of 16 million rubles. At the meeting, both defendants were forced. The judge of the Lenin court, Alexei Vtyurin, made this decision at the meeting on January 30 , after Navalny, officers and their lawyers did not appear twice at the hearing. The press secretary of the court stated that no convincing documents explaining the absence of defendants and defenders were submitted. At the same time, the lawyers of Alexei Navalny and Pyotr Officerov said that these days they were busy at other processes.
Despite the forced delivery of the defendants, the fate of the meeting on February 1 was still in question: on Monday on Monday, the press service of Alexei Navalny reported that Peter Officerov was hospitalized with suspicion of acute pancreatitis, which meant that he would not have been delivered to the court.
But on the eve of the meeting, on the morning of January 31, it became known that Peter Officer from the hospital unexpectedly wrote out: “In the hospital, where the officer was hospitalized, an audit came, and he was simply written out and washed out the patient from this excellent“ healthcare institution, ” explained Alexei Navalny in his blog.
The most opposition policy "forcibly delivered" the bailiff service for a meeting in Kirov. On January 31, the bailiffs arrived at the Office of the Corruption, which heads Navalny, and after some meeting, the policy was taken to the Moscow Bailiff Department in order to already deliver to the airport to the aircraft in Kirov. It is specified that Navalny was without handcuffs. The opposition himself told the bailiffs that he was already going to Kirov and that he had a plane ticket.
The Russian system is amazing: -You should go to Kirov. -Inch, I'm going, here is a ticket. -No, you have to go with us. Yes, I'm going.
- Alexey Navalny (@navalny) January 31, 2017
Photo: Alexey Navalny expects a flight to Kirov in the premises of the Bailiff Service Pica.twitter.com/nmzegzmlgs
- Alexey Navalny (@navalny) January 31, 2017
To go to King Burger accompanied by three bailiffs, NTV cameras and Russia1 - made. (I think it looked comical)
- Alexey Navalny (@navalny) January 31, 2017
Earlier, Navalny drew attention to the fact that since mid -January the process in Kirov has significantly accelerated - among the lawyers of the defendants, meetings were canceled one after another:
“For today, all the courts in which our lawyers are busy with officer, as if on the command, canceled all the meetings, announced breaks in the processes and even“ fell ill ”, about which they sent emergency telephones to the Lenin Court of Kirov. And so everywhere - up to the Moscow District Military Court and the Garrison Military Court (Davydova’s business has a lawyer),” wrote on January 19 on January 19, ”wrote on January 19 Alexey Navalny.
The defense of Navalny believes that it is given an indication of it to condemn him, and as quickly as possible. At the beginning of the second process in the Kirovles case - in December 2016 - Judge Alexei Vtyurin was going to hold meetings every day, but then he had to coordinate the list of hearings in accordance with the employment of lawyers at other processes.
A repeated consideration of the Kirovles case began in Kirov on December 5 and became possible after the Russian Supreme Court canceled the first sentence in this case. Then Alexei Navalny and Peter Officers were sentenced to 5 and 4 years of colony conditionally. In February last year, the European Court of Human Rights, having examined the complaint of the defense of Navalny and Officer against the 2013 sentence, came to the conclusion that during the process the right of the defendants was violated to a fair trial, and also concluded that the actions of the defendants did not differ from legal entrepreneurial activity. According to the prosecution, Alexei Navalny, being in 2009, an adviser to the governor of the Kirov region Nikita Belykh, together with the entrepreneur Peter Officer, who founded the Vyatka forest company, organized theft of 10 thousand cubic meters of forest. The accusation believes that the defendants purchased the forest from the state enterprise Kirovles at prices below the market, but sold at overpriced, and thus caused damage to the Kirov region in the amount of 16 million rubles.
Representatives of the prosecutor's office read out the same indictment for a new consideration of the case in Kirov. Alexey Navalny and Peter Officers deny guilt and consider the case politically motivated. During the process - in December 2016 - Alexei Navalny announced that he intends to participate in the 2018 presidential election . At the same time, the conviction in the Kirovles case deprives him of this opportunity: convicts on grave articles cannot take part in the elections. Earlier, lawyers said that they have information: Alexei Navalny will be appointed a real sentence.