Repressive laws are given

Judge Sergei Gruzdev, who planted the accused in the case of Ivan Golunov, became a lawyer. He said what he thinks about judicial and lawyer work

The judge of the Moscow City Court Sergey Gruzdev in 2021 resigned and moved to the bar. As a judge, he considered resonant criminal cases, including the case of Moscow police officers who threw drugs to journalist Ivan Golunov. Gruzdev gave a detailed interview about his work - as a judge and lawyer - the project "Lawyer Street". "Medusa" publishes excerpts from this text.

- There are fresh examples of cases of statements about the “special military operation”. The case of Alexei Gorinov , the case of Ilya Yashin. From the point of view of so many people, they are innocent - because they simply called a spade a spade. And there, effective protection did not help to avoid imprisonment.

- For my practice, I learned the judge: to discuss criminal cases in which you did not directly participate, to give them an assessment is extremely wrong. And I was not present at these meetings, I did not watch the materials of affairs.

I'd like to give an example with my business [Ivan] Golunov . Do you remember how it all started - and how was it presented in the media? A drug addict, there is nowhere to put stigma and others like him. If I come up with a time machine and you return at that time, you are unlikely to find any message or a note of the media of the opposite content.

- In terms of? I will find a million. On the sites of the largest publications there were statements that we believe in the innocence of Ivan. My colleagues, the entire journalistic community went into pickets.

- Well, probably, I was not very correct in this statement. I am about the fact that all the “strong” media that had the maximum opportunity to convey information to the public - all of them unanimously said that Golunov is a villain.

- What media do you mean? Channel One?

- Well, yes. I don't look at them, really. But in order to find the information about which you are talking about, you had to look somewhere, climb somewhere in addition.

- RBC, where I then worked, was one of the top Russian media - and we said that we believe in the innocence of Golunov. In the same way, Kommersant, Vedomosti and many others did.

- Agree. How do you need a proposal to reformulate my answer? All those media that I do not want to call "pro -government" or "pro -Russian" ...

- Federal TV channels.

-Yes. There, at that time, the version was priority that he is a salesman, a drug addict, and so on. And many people believed in it. But when you study the criminal case, when it falls on the table, when you begin to interrogate witnesses-you suddenly understand that everything is completely different. And you saw the result in my sentence.

“But you did not justify Golunov - you sentenced the operatives.” Ivan's innocence by that time was already a common place.

- Well, this is an exaggerated example. If I judged him, I could say in the same way that he is not a super -wearer.

That is why I myself, until I will be a participant in the criminal case, will not comment on it - and I warn my colleagues. In the case of Yashin, I do not know what the lawyers did. What levers and opportunities they used to influence the court decision.

And if you want me to evaluate, in principle, the legal nature of affairs in relation to these persons, then I will probably not do this.

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-Have you already taken any business?

- In general, I have something to brag about. There is one thing about the fraud in the field of construction, which is my right-in the sense, I lead it. And there are still things where I take part episodically. And several times, my intervention has led to the non -removal of a preventive measure in the form of detention. That is, people come after a search in the status of a witness to the investigative body, they are interrogated - and everything suggests that there should be the so -called “implementation”. But we left in the same status in which we came. Very late, true. Each time they sat until 11 o’clock in the evening.

- But interrogations at night are prohibited.

- In fact, they always fit. 23:00 - this is when we already went down to the wardrobe, put on jackets, spread a couple of phrases, said goodbye. By the way, for me was the discovery of the volume of work of the investigating authorities. I understood that they work a lot - but when you see it with your own eyes, it is much easier to understand them.

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“Do you know about the Fortress plan?” He will be involved when some political rallies ...

- Is it called "fortress"? Recently I remembered this word. It seemed to me "citadel." Yes, I know about him. Cool invented.

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-They talk a lot about “telephone law”: the chairman asked to make such and such a decision, the judge did it ...

-If they call the judge and order something to do something, then they are asked to do not according to the law. Otherwise, why call something? If you do everything right by virtue of your mantle right. Just apply the law and that's it. You do not apply the law - appeal, cancellation, disciplinary sanction - and that’s all, went to lawyers. Joke.

When I took the oath to the post of judge, Olga Alexandrovna Egorova said a parting word. And she said one wise thing that I remembered for life: "Only the law can protect you."

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- The law that must protect, not everyone likes us now. The Constitution was changed for the President’s Wishlist ...

- Not everyone always likes the law. Someone is always dissatisfied with applicable law.

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-Still, I was very hooked by your phrase about how the law protects us ...

- And I did not talk about us. I'm talking about the judge.

- Okay, judge. Nevertheless, the question is: what last year was nuclear in the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses , do you like it?

- What does "like" mean? This is a given. If you want to ask me as a former judge, then ...

- I want to ask you as a lawyer.

- I will say as a lawyer. You need to watch how this will be reflected in each case.

- A specific case. There is one of the new articles of the Criminal Code, the case of Alexandra Skochilenko - a girl who in the store changed ordinary price tags on the price tags with the text about the “special operation”. She is now in a pre -trial detention center. By the letter of the current law, she faces up to ten years. Will there be a judge who will pass such a sentence to her, sleep calmly after that?

- If, making a decision, he will be guided by his conscience, he will probably be. Perceive the law in the context of conscience. If you act on conscience, then the law will protect you.

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- It is usually believed that the courts follow the leadership of the investigating authorities and operational support authorities. Therefore, they cannot, as a rule, of acquittal sentences. We have 0.4%of them ...

- Ready to explain right away [why this happens] - it is very easy. Absolutely not all criminal cases come to the court. Honestly, I do not want to offend the investigating authorities - but it is much easier for them to terminate the case at the investigation than getting a decision to terminate the case in court. Well, roughly speaking, what should this be an investigator to send the case to court, knowingly realizing that it has no procedural prospects? That there is no evidence of guilt?

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- Five [years of imprisonment] is also a tangible number!

- I want to say about it! 22 - this is clearly a lot. But five years - it would seem, only five years ...

- You have an interesting deformation. Many would be shocked if they had heard that one of their loved ones was sentenced to five years.

- There is actually deformation. But I still tried to abstract from her. And it seems to me that she did not hit me to the end. But take the legal community of lawyers. They would react like this: "Oh, only five years." Most also thinks, 90 percent. You communicate with them.

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- I want to ask about [Ivan] Safronov . Due to the fact that many journalists and lawyers forced to leave the country, the materials of this case leaked to the press. Have you read them?

- I generally try not to spend time on this. Suddenly they are falsified? Plus, I will honestly say: in 16 years I have read so many legal documents that there is no desire to read this during the time. For leisure, I have something to do, and this will definitely not be a criminal right. Not even right at all.