We do not have a jury

A relatively short report from a 12-hour trial over student Yegor Zhukov. He is accused of extremism in the framework of "Moscow case"

On December 3, in the Kuntsevsky District Court of Moscow, consideration of on the merits of the case Yegor Zhukov began. A 21-year-old student of the Higher School of Economics is accused of public calls for extremist activity (part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code) during protests against uncertain candidates for elections to the Moscow City Duma. According to investigators, the student carried out the calls through his Utuub channel “Blog Zhukov”. The 12-hour process, which never ended, was observed by the correspondent of Medusa Christina Safonova.

At nine in the morning - an hour before the start of the court hearing in the case of Yegor Zhukov - people began to gather at the Kuntsevsky district court of Moscow. By ten, the turn at the entrance stretched for ten meters. Those who managed to go into the building gathered at one of the halls on the fourth floor.

- Who are you? - The bailiff in thin glasses asks the bailiff menacingly, from the pocket of the jacket of which a blue scarf peeped out.

“I am father,” Sergey Zhukov responds and goes into the hall.

In total, about 30 people came to the meeting-among them Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov and the vice-rector of the Higher School of Economics, Valery Kasamar, who participated in the elections to the Moscow City Duma (due to participation in the protest before the Zhukov elections now in court). The whole process of Casamar was talking with the father and mother of Yegor - a woman with blond hair and massive gold jewelry. The former defendant in the “Moscow business” Alexei Minyailo came to support Zhukov, but he was not allowed into the hall. "Egor!" He shouted from the corridor when the door opened. "Hello, Lesha!" - Zhukov answered. The door immediately slammed shut.

The case is considered by Judge Svetlana Ukhnalev. The prosecutor Morozov and his assistant participate in the process of the prosecution. Yegor Zhukov has three defenders: Leonid Soloviev, Ilya Novikov and Murad Musaev. They are crowded on the bench. A chair was placed near Yegor. A black bracelet is fixed on his right leg - from the third of September, he has been under house arrest.

Initially, the student of the Faculty of Political Science of the Higher School of Economics charged participation in “mass riots” (part 2 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code). Then this case was closed, but a new charge was charged - calls for extremism (part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code). According to the investigation, from October to December 2017, Yegor Zhukov “experiencing a sense of political hatred and enmity for the constitutional system existing in the Russian Federation, the system of state power and its representatives” shot four videos and placed them on his Yetube Channel “Blog Zhukov” in order to “attract an unlimited circle of persons to their extremist activity”. Among the evidence in the text of the prosecution is the flag of the Libertarian party “with the image of a snake of black color” and “Souvenir figure in the form of three frogs” - they are on all videos in which the expert of the accusations saw calls for extremism.

Zhukov does not plead guilty. He explains that he created the channel in 2017, when he graduated from the first year, as he wanted to share his knowledge. “If I had not studied at the Faculty of Political Science in the Higher School of Economics, I would never have started a blog,” the student explains, emphasizing that he was hatching for any of the Russian politicians, although he perceives them as “its political opponents”. The proof of his respect for the constitutional system, the student continues, his participation in the elections to the Moscow City Duma. “I constantly emphasize [in my rollers] inefficiency of violent methods in politics. They are ineffective and immoral, ”says Zhukov, knocking on the rostrum with his hand.

Egor talks in detail about his detention on August 2, 2019. According to him, the police, who accompanied him in a car carrier to the Investigative Committee, had subscribed to his blog by the end of the way, and the investigator reacted sympathetically to him, saying: "Again they force me to engage in innocent boys." He was already preparing to let him go, but there was a new investigator against it - he threatened him for a year and a half in a pre -trial detention center if he did not plead guilty. “[When I was sent to a pre -trial detention center, it turned out that it turned out that the person who spoke the crowd at the rally, where to run, is not me,” says Zhukov. -It was necessary to hang something new on me. Investigators already knew that I had a blog. ”

Next is the witness of the prosecution - expert of the criminal center of the SK, Kirill Khmelevsky. He took part in the study of the Zhukov Blog - the prosecutor, and then the defenders, first ask him in detail about this. The attention of the latter is attracted by what acquainted with Khmelevsky for almost 12 hours without interruptions. Judge Ukhnalev is also interested in such productivity: “Have you made no breaks at all? It’s not to go out, do not move away. ” “When you do some kind of work, time runs very quickly,” says Khmelevsky. And, thinking, adds: "It's like a court session."

After a 20-minute break, a second witness of the prosecution is invited to the hall-an employee of the Institute of Forensics of the Center for Special Technology of the FSB Alexander Korshikov. He is the author of a linguistic study of nine videos from the YouTube channel Zhukov (in four of them Korshikov found calls for extremist activity). Korshikov greets everyone affectionately, but on the proposal of Judge Ukhnaleva to leave a jacket on a hanger next to the audience says: “I would leave, but I know: our people are thieved.” Together with Korshikov, two experts from the defense are allowed to go to the hall so that they can also listen to the discussion.

The interrogation of Korshikov lasts three hours - Most of the time the lawyers Zhukov ask questions. They are interested in whether the expert has a linguistic education (Korshikov, a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, but has been engaged in expert work for more than 25 years and underwent appropriate training), why he conducted a study on Sunday, whether he supports a “connection with modern linguistic science” and which of the people listed by a lawyer considers authority in this area. In addition, the participants in the process are discussed a lot about the meaning of the words “protest” and “hatred”.

At the request of the lawyer Ilya Novikov, to tell how Korshikov came to the conclusion that in the video of Zhukov there are calls for extremism, the expert explains: “I take the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, I read the name of articles. I read: it looks like or not. And from the point of view of linguistics, I compare the words. When I see some similarities, I write: “I have signs of crime”. ” To which the lawyer recalls the decision of the Plenum of the Supreme Court , which prohibits experts to give legal assessment to acts. Korshikov claims that he did not do this - but wrote a study from a linguistic point of view.

Novikov cites Zhukov’s quotes allocated in the study and asks the expert to explain where the calls to extremism are hidden in them. Korshikov in response explains that Zhukov’s “protest” includes both violent methods and non -violent methods.

The judge allows the defense to question the expert in detail - although before that in response to the request to read out the results of the examination (the prosecutor announced only the conclusions) did not hide irritation: “I would like the participants in the process to remember the savings of procedural time. I read [the results of the examination], the prosecutor too, the protection is even more so. For whom? Again for the public? We do not have a jury. "

The court asks the court to permit to the interrogation of the specialist they called Anna Levinzon - she graduated with honors from Moscow State University in the specialty “Russian Language and Literature”, and has been teaching the last ten years at the Higher School of Economics. Prosecutor Morozov asks Levinzon to refuse to participate, as he believes that she is not qualified enough. The judge agrees.

The court refuses to interview the second defense specialist, Nina Dobrushina. Like Levinzon, she teaches at the Higher School of Economics; Dobrushina graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, and then defended the candidate and after the doctoral in the semantics of the Russian language.

After the next refusal, the defenders ask to postpone a court review for the next week, explaining that it is impossible to work effectively for five hours almost without interruptions. Prosecutor Morozov does not support their application. “We are all in equal terms,” he says and offers to continue after another short break. The judge supports the prosecutor again - she states that if the lawyers “hadn’t played the public”, the work would go faster, after which she announces the first long break for the entire time. But as soon as the participants in the process return to the hall, the court is evacuated. The next hour, everything, obviously freezing, observe the work of firefighters; Because of what they were summoned to court, they do not say.

The lawyer Novikov does not return to the resumption of the process. Ukhnaleva considers this disrespect, but since no one objects, continues to consider the case. On the laptop in turn, four videos from the Blog of Yegor Zhukov include, in which experts of the accusations saw calls for extremism. After that, Zhukov is again interrogated. He once again - already with specific examples from the videos - explains that he did not call anyone for violence, and the expert, affirming the opposite, “ignores the context” of the told in the blog. In particular, speaking of the phrase “with the system, it is necessary to fight hard and systematically” (in it, among others, they saw a call to extremism), Zhukov notes: “I have repeatedly heard our president“ hard to fight ”with corrupt officials. I do not think that he had in mind violence for them without trial and investigation. I think if Vladimir Vladimirovich uses such a design, then I can. ”

Zhukov reports that at the request of protection, four independent experts examined the videos, because of which he was accused, and did not find signs of extremism in them. Lawyers will apply to the introduction of their conclusions later, Zhukov explains.

At ten in the evening, the interrogation of Zhukov is interrupted by Judge Ukhnalev. Despite the objections of the lawyer, she decides to continue the consideration of the case the next morning. “If today we worked more promptly, and did not bicker each other, practicing in eloquence, I think we would have managed to have much more today,” the judge says.

Already in the corridor of Yegor, who spent all day freely with those who came to support him and completely strangers, tells someone laughing: “Tomorrow I am everything,” and folds his hands behind his back, as if they were chained.

Kristina Safonova