The rude humour of Russian Themis
Novozhilov’s case
Eugeny Novozhilov is an anarchist and an anti-war activist from Krasnodar. There are few in this city, a quiet “feoff” of the “patriot and fighter for people’s good” “Father Kondrashka” and those who exist are disliked by the authorities. It was Krasnodar where the first case against Larisa Romanova and the Cherepanov’s case occured. To tell the truth in Cherepanov’s case the judge did not believe that a member of an opposition movement “Autonomous action” who had had problems with authorities on this subject had been walking not to visit his friends but to the military enlistment office with which he also had had problems with a package of herb in his pocket and Cherepanov was liberated after spending three months in the detention facility. Unfortunately Novozhilov’s situation was quite different.
On January, 18, 2002 Eugeny Novozhilov was convicted by the Sovetsky district court on the article 207 of the Criminal Code of RF “Knowingly mis-informing about a terrorist act” and sentenced to mandative treatment in a psychiatric hospital of common type. The base for the accusation was his only phrase which he said by telephone to his girl-friend being in rather rotten frame of mind caused by his illness: “I have such a mood that I’d like to explode a skyscraper”. His girl-friend was not an official agency which might be mis-informed and Novozhilov did not know that the “big brother” was listening to him but it didn’t confuse the court. Neither it was confused by the fact that the conversation lasted half an hour and mainly on everyday topics: it was necessary to mend a tape-recorder, etc., it is a luck that it was not interpreted as an attempt to make an explosive device. Novozhilov spent near half a year in the psychiatric hospital. Now he is restoring his health injured seriously as a result of the treatment.
Derevyankin’s case
Andrey Derevyankin is a dissident and an anti-war activist from the city of Engels, Saratov province.
He drew the badger of the authorities by picketing the military aircraft base holding a slogan “Death to tyrants!” and made a leaflet “A specially dangerous criminal Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is wanted” appealing to inform a special website about all the moves of this personality who had once exploded the houses in Moscow and waged the “great Chechen PR action for presidential elections”. On December, 8, 2000 Derevyankin was sentenced by Saratov regional court to 4 years imprisonment of common regime for organization of an armed unit (Derevyankin was the only target in the investigation!!!). By the way, the weapon seized from Derevyankin was present in the case – a computer mouse and a bucket with flour paste.
Zara Murtazalieva’s case
Zara Murtazalieva is a Chechen student of the extramural department of the Linguistic faculty of the Pyatigorsk University. She came to Moscow to earn money to help her mother and junior sisters living in demolished by the Kremlin castigators country. Unlike the previously described tyranny victims she was not a regime adversary. Simply, there is such a job to defend Putin which requires reporting not less than any other but real guerillas, first, live in the mountains, second, they strike back.
On January, 17, 2005 Zara was convicted for agitating two Moscovites who lodged a room together with her to become female suicide bombers.
There were three evidences. The first was forced up to Zara plastic explosive of original construction with a new, currently unknown in pyrothechnics property – to evaporate noiseless. Neither fingerprints nor washouts of Zara’s fingers for contact with it were taken, a bar of explosives was simply elicited from Zara’s handbag in presence of three law-enforcement officers, was fixed in the protocol and disappeared by itself. The second were wiretapped Zara’s talks to her neighbours in which she responded negatively to VVP’s [Putin’s] Chechen operation. (If Americans occupy us how would you respond to it? Those who consider it has already happened respond respectively).
The second and the main, the most decisive argument proving her guilt was that she had recorded songs of the Chechen singer Timur Mitsuraev on cassettes and not only had but listened sometimes and even not alone but with her friends-neighbours (!!!!). By the way when the prosecutor wished to get familiar with this highly subversive music at the judicial proceedings it was found out that there was a little of Mitsuraev on Murtazalieva’s cassettes but mostly there were records of Vysotsky. As a result the gruffy baritone of the immortal Russian singer shoke the musty air of the stuffy office of the Moscow city court for rather a long time, and the court secretary called and asked if everything was well (probably he meant if everything was well in the listening organizers’ heads?). However, if you think a little, some Vysotsky’s songs, such as “We choose wooden suits” or “A ballad of free shooters” and most of all “The sunset was burning as a sword-blade steel” can also be considered... as appeals to overthrowing of current order. Finally, the serial judge Komarova well-known to public for her previous deeds marked 9 years imprisonment for Zara. The cassational instance court has revealed humanity and decreased the term of imprisonment by half a year.
What can one say on this subject after reading it? Are our judges bribed by FSB [Federal Security Service]? I don’t believe! How to take such a decision being sober, not a simply knowingly unjust decision but a such one? And what about last remains of self-esteem, of professional proud and finally of desire not to look like idiots? No, the FSB does not feed our judges – it lushes them.
