The Moscow City Court commuted the sentences of four defendants in the New Greatness case. The rest are unchanged

The Moscow City Court commuted the sentences of four defendants in the New Greatness case. The sentences of the remaining defendants were left unchanged. This was reported by the coordinator of legal assistance at OVD-Info, Alla Frolova.

The court changed the verdicts:

• Ruslan Kostylenkov - six years and 9 months in prison (instead of the seven years imposed in the first instance), five years of restricted freedom and a two-year ban on posting materials on the Internet;
• Pyotr Karamzin - six years and three months in prison (instead of six and a half years), two years of restriction of freedom and a five-year ban on posting materials on the Internet;
• Maria Dubovik - the probationary period was reduced from 5 to 4 years, the 6-year suspended sentence and the five-year ban on posting materials on the Internet remained unchanged;
• Anna Pavlikova’s probation period was reduced from 5 to 4 years, the 4-year suspended sentence and the five-year ban on posting materials on the Internet remained unchanged.

The sentences were left unchanged:

• Vyacheslav Kryukov - 6 years in a general regime colony and a two-year ban on posting materials on the Internet;
• Maxim Roshchin - 6.5 years of suspended imprisonment, two years of restricted freedom and a five-year ban on posting materials on the Internet;
• Dmitry Poletaev - 6 years of suspended imprisonment, two years of restricted freedom and a one-year ban on posting materials on the Internet.

The defense asked to overturn the verdicts and acquit all those involved in the case. The prosecution considered the sentence legal and fair and asked that it be left unchanged, although at the end of September the prosecutor's office stated that it considered the sentence too lenient.

The appeal case was postponed eight times. At the same time, the court refused to allow the defense to re-examine a number of evidence: examination of material evidence, questioning of witnesses.

The court also rejected the defense's request to conduct a second psychological and linguistic examination. Lawyers considered it necessary due to contradictions in the examinations that exist in the case materials. It was the data from these examinations that formed the basis for accusing the defendants of organizing the activities of an extremist community.

The lawyers emphasized that the criminal case brought against the defendants in the “New Greatness” case was the result of a provocation by the security forces: the defense believes that it was the secret witness Ruslan D. (Konstantinov, aka Radu Zelinsky) who was introduced by the police and who owned many of the initiatives within the “New Greatness”.

16:44 Lawyer from OVD-Info Svetlana Sidorkina added that the Moscow City Court issued a special ruling to the judge of the Lyublinsky District Court, Alexander Maslov, in connection with procedural violations in the “New Greatness” case. It is unknown what exactly the violations were.

The headline and text of the news have been changed due to the appearance of information about the reduction of the probationary period for Dubovik and Pavlikova

• In mid-March 2018, members of the previously unknown “New Greatness” movement were detained and then arrested in Moscow. They were charged with organizing and participating in the activities of an extremist community (Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code). Lawyers for the accused pointed out that the movement appeared with the active participation of embedded intelligence officers. On August 6, 2020, the court found some of the defendants guilty under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist community (Part 1 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code), three were given actual sentences of 6 to 7 years in prison. Another person involved in the case, Pavel Rebrovsky, was sentenced to 6 years in prison in a separate trial.
• Eight lawyers from OVD-Info have worked or continue to work in the New Greatness case at different times: Nikolay Fomin, Olga Karlova, Tatyana Okushko, Alexander Borkov, Mikhail Spiridonov, Dmitry Ivanov, Maria Eismont and Ilya Utkin. The convicts are also defended by lawyers Svetlana Sidorkina, Maxim Pashkov, Karinna Moskalenko, Alexander Lupashko and Ilnur Sharapov.