The system works according to the scheme

In St. Petersburg, the process on the director and journalist Vsevolod Korolev continues. He is judged for "Fakes about the Russian Army"

Director-Documentist, poet, philosopher, correspondent of the journal Discourse, 36-year-old Vsevolod Korolev, who is now being judged in the Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg for the Fakes of the Russian Army, did not distribute any fakes. In two posts on the VKontakte social network in the spring of 2022, which is charged with a man, there was no obviously false information, and even more so signs of political hatred and enmity. The defense of Seva insists on this, which since the end of last year in court presents evidence of its innocence.

Currently, in the process, the main evidence is considered - an examination, on which the whole charge is being built. It should be noted that under this scheme the charges were charged to almost all St. Petersburg defendants in cases under Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - Alexander Skochilenko, Victoria Petrova, Oleg Belousov, Olga Smirnova, Evgeny Bestuzhev and others, and in all cases the same experts of the Center for Expertise of St. Petersburg State University were involved.

The Korolev defense has now submitted an alternative conclusion on the content of the director’s publications on social networks, prepared by independent highly qualified specialists. At a meeting on January 10, Judge Marina Goryacheva agreed to introduce this conclusion to the case file and interrogate the experts themselves.

Vsevolod Korolev, according to investigators, March 15 and April 12, 2022, posted two posts on the VKontakte social networks with supposedly inaccurate information. The criminal case against the director was opened on July 11, 2022 under paragraph "d" of part 2 of Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - the spread of "fakes" about the Russian army "based on political hatred and enmity." On July 13, he was arrested and sent to a pre -trial detention center, where he was already a year and a half. On October 5, 2022, the Korolev case was transferred to the Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg. If the court finds the Seva guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

As the New "said, Vsevolod from the first days entered the pacifist protest in St. Petersburg, twice he was detained and put under arrest. On his page on the VKontakte social network, the director, not to warn friends and the threat of criminal prosecution, placed posts and made reposts on the topic of events in Ukraine. There, Vsevolod posted his directorial work - two documentaries about the first fakes arrested in the Northern capital about the Russian Armed Forces: artist, musician, video operator Alexander Skochilenko (D/F “Sasha, We are with you”) and journalist Maria Ponomarenko (D/F “Cold May”).

Korolev prepared the next documentary - about all activists opposing a special operation in Ukraine, but did not manage to finish it before the arrest.

Over the past few months, evidence of the defendant's guilt in court was charged. But they all turned out to be untenable.

So, in addition to the examination, the prosecutor referred to the interrogations of witnesses, two Petersburgers - Mikhail Baranov and Vladimir Shatokhin, who, according to the investigation, found the Korolev posts in social networks. However, both witnesses during the trial did not confirm the version of the investigation. Baranov during interrogation in court said that he gave testimony at the stage of investigation under pressure: the operatives threatened him with a criminal case. When drawing up the protocol, according to Baranov, the investigator dictated to him the wording. In particular, he demanded that Mikhail “experienced anger and discontent from the read messages at VK. But Shatokhin in court admitted that he did not remember how the matter was, the VKontakte social network has not been using the questions that they ask him for a long time.

- I can’t remember how, where and when I testified to the investigator, what papers I signed. I remember they drank a glass and parted, ”said Shatokhin.

The act of inspection of the Korolev page on the VKontakte social network, which was attached as evidence, was compiled with serious violations. The author of the document, an employee of the Center “E” of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region Vasily Marchuk did not reflect in the act editing screenshots, checking the Internet connection and a certificate of authenticity of the Vsevolod page.

According to Korolev’s defense, man’s personal belongings do not prove his guilt and the white and blue-green notebooks, an orange notebook and made up a few years ago, homemade posters with statements in support of prisoners and politicians, as well as for human freedom and rights.

- The posters with whom I went into pickets in 2019–2020 were attached to the case. This is allowed by law. The notes in the notebook are five years old, they have not relate to a special operation, the notebooks also contain personal notes. I don't understand how all this can prove my guilt? - said, speaking in court, Korolev himself.

The lawyer of the defendant Maria Zyryanova on January 10 filed a petition for the exclusion from the evidence of the interrogations of the witnesses of Baranov and Shatokhin, the act of inspection of the Korolev page on the VKontakte social network, Seva’s personal belongings. However, the judge refused everything.

The examination of publications conducted as part of the investigation in this social network has also been criticized since the prosecution presented it as evidence.

“First of all,” said the defender of the accused, “the study was violated. The investigation appointed a linguistic examination, and its authors (employees of the Center for Expertise of St. Petersburg State University-political scientist Olga Safonova and linguist Alla Teplyashin) conducted a political-linguistic examination. The law states that the study format can be changed only by decision of the investigator, but he did not make such a decision.

The petition of Maria Zyryanova for the introduction to the case of a psycholinguistic study of independent specialists, as well as the subsequent interrogation in court on January 10, Judge Marina Goryacheva unexpectedly satisfied. The Korolev-attracted specialists-linguist Igor Zharkov (the author of more than 800 examinations and studies, including more than 170 forensic examinations) and psychologist Veronika Konstantinov (expert of the Gladys and Amicus Curiae communities-humanitarian examination for fair justice), firstly, the examination made by the investigation order, and reflected Secondly, they voiced their own conclusions about the publications of Vsevolod on the VKontakte social network.

As Zharkov noted, Teplyashin and Safonov tear out phrases from the context to come to the conclusions and estimates they need.

The linguist ironically responded about the criteria of the reliability that experts appeal to:

- They say: "Officially, it means reliably." It would be convenient to investigate all the crimes: if it is written on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense, who killed, it means that it is.

“In the texts of the Korolev there are no statements about the facts of the use of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine, there are no appraisal judgments that would testify that the author is poorly expressed about the military personnel of the Russian army, not to mention the enmity or hatred feeding on them,” summed up Zharkov.

“Korolev, creating and publishing posts in the social network“ VK ”, which served as the reason for initiating a criminal case, did not seek to independently inform the population about any facts, but was sure that he had the right to express his opinion,” Veronika Konstantinova said in court. - He was sincerely convinced of the words published by him, therefore, the thesis of the “deliberate falsity” is completely groundless.

Despite the fact that both specialists were attracted by the defense, both the prosecutor and the judge had the right to ask their questions. However, the judge asked only a few formal moments, and the prosecutor generally said nothing.

The process in the Korolev case will continue on January 19. At the next meeting, the defense intends to petition for the re -calling of experts to Teplyashina and Safonova in order to ask them clarifying questions and give them the opportunity to eliminate the conflicts that have arisen.