Masks, modulators and testimony via WhatsApp: secret witnesses in Russian courts

As a rule, the reason for classification is a threat to the safety of the witness himself or his family and friends. “Roughly speaking, they can pay for their testimony with their health, or even their lives. In practice, this is often used, unfortunately, without basis, especially in political cases,” says OVD-Info lawyer Ekaterina Selezneva. According to her, in practice it is almost impossible to declassify a witness: even if there is no evidence of danger, a court that has already recognized the existence of a threat will simply not argue with its own ruling.

“In my practice, not a single witness has been declassified,” says lawyer Dmitry Dinze. He often encountered the use of secret witnesses in courts. The lawyer says that secret witnesses, as a rule, appear in the middle of developing a criminal case, when the circumstances are already known (or invented - OVD-Info ) and need to be confirmed.

“Then secret witnesses voice information that cannot be verified or assessed in any way. For example, that they heard something from the accused,” says Dinze.

At the same time, a secret witness is not obliged to answer questions from lawyers and clients if these questions threaten to reveal his identity.

Dinze compares secret witnesses with hired witnesses - this is a party that should be independent, but as a rule works in the interests of the investigation. Secret witnesses can be either real witnesses found during the investigation or infiltrated intelligence officers. Or it could be a defendant who has agreed to a pre-trial deal with the investigation.

The ultra-right and the cause of “New Greatness”

Information and Analytical The SOVA Center has been monitoring nationalism and political radicalism in Russia for more than sixteen years. Its head, Alexander Verkhovsky, says that the intelligence services practically did not use embedded agents when developing far-right groups. Because it was almost impossible to do this.

Firstly , these groups often consisted of teenagers who knew each other well. Secondly , agents would have to make great efforts at mimicry, because the far right attacked people on the street, often with weapons. At a minimum, the infiltrated agents would have to cut someone up and not wag their tongues.

In 2008, Nazis from the NSO-North group suspected one of their comrades of working for the intelligence services and “leaking” information to them. Nikolai Melnik (most likely a pseudonym for undercover work) was beaten and then strangled . The body was taken to the bathroom. There his head was cut off. The Nazis filmed everything that happened. Whether Melnik was an intelligence agent is still unknown.

The head of Sova says that there were also recruited witnesses in criminal cases involving the far right. But he immediately notes that the recruited person may not have been presented in court precisely as a secret witness. He could simply testify as part of the trial.

“Neither he himself nor the operatives are interested in saying that this witness was recruited earlier. Because it could undermine further work. Otherwise, he may still remain in the field and continue to be useful. People from the far-right movement who testified against others—they were not expunged forever. They remained in the environment,” says Verkhovsky.