On January 17, the judge of the Petushinsky District Court of the Vladimir Region will announce the verdict for Alexey Navalny's lawyers.
The case on charges of participation in an «extremist community» has been considered in a closed session since September last year. According to the investigation, Navalny's defenders, «using their status», regularly transmitted the oppositionist's letters from detention to his associates. Thus, Navalny «continued to perform the functions of a leader and head of an extremist community».
On December 17, during the debates in the Petushinsky District Court of the Vladimir Region, the prosecutor requested to sentence Vadim Kobzev to 5 years and 11 months of imprisonment, Alexey Lipcer — 5 years and 10 months of imprisonment. Igor Sergunin*, who pleaded guilty in the case, the prosecution requested to sentence to 5 years and 6 months in a colony. In addition to imprisonment, the prosecutor also petitioned to prohibit the defendants from providing legal services for 5 years.
Today, lawyer Vadim Kobzev delivered his final statement, NT cites part of his speech.
«We are being judged for transmitting Navalny's thoughts to other people. Could Navalny even imagine in 2011 that in 2021 all his activities over 10 years would be recognized as criminal, and in 2024 his lawyers would be judged for transmitting his thoughts? Did I know in 2010 that I would end up in prison for this in 2023? The questions are obviously rhetorical. I'll say more. During our process, we all clearly saw that even the operatives of the Federal Penitentiary Service and investigators of the Investigative Committee in 2021 themselves did not yet know this, continuing to quietly and peacefully eavesdrop on Navalny's thoughts in prison and store them in a safe.
And, of course, I cannot fail to draw everyone's attention to one of Navalny's eavesdropped thoughts — the thought of talking in Telegram about rising food prices. An operative interrogated in court stated that he personally considers this thought extremist, criminal. For transmitting this thought, lawyer Lipcer is sitting behind bars next to me.
Who knows, maybe in 5-10 years in Russia, people will be imprisoned by the hundreds for messages about price increases? The future is unknown, but we know the past. We know that in the 30s, 40s, 50s in Russian courts, people with the same serious faces already sent citizens to camps for transmitting skeptical thoughts about the authorities. A joke told about the constitutional order or Soviet officials, that is, the transmission of critical and mocking thoughts, was then exactly the same as what in our case is called «discreditation» and «extremism». We also know that then people with the same serious faces (and sometimes it was the same people) overturned these sentences, shrugging and saying in a low voice: «It was the time». 80 years have passed, history has made another turn, the state has once again changed its lenses, and in the Petushinsky court, they are again judging for discrediting officials and state bodies.
We as a nation are treading water. We are stuck in an optics salon, trying on all the glasses at random, without bothering to look at the prescription in our pocket.
The final — third — part is literary-historical.
In Erich Maria Remarque's novel «The Spark of Life», it tells about a concentration camp near a fictional German city. Spring 1945. The end of the war. American soldiers enter the camp. The now captured former commandant of the concentration camp justifies himself:
«—...I knew nothing about this. It was others, on their own...
American corporal:
— Of course. Always only others. And those who died here over all these years, what about them? Or was that not you either?
— That was an order. Duty.
The corporal turned to the soldier standing next to him.
— In the coming years, we will have to hear two phrases here more often than others: «I acted on orders» and «I knew nothing».
The commandant did not listen to him.
— I did everything I could...
— And that, — said the corporal bitterly, — will be the third!»
Your Honor! Before you retire to the deliberation room, I sincerely hope that in connection with the verdict, you will never under any circumstances have to utter any of these three phrases».
The full speech is published on the «Novaya Gazeta» website.
* Included in the list of «terrorists and extremists».
Photo: Alexandra Astakhova/Mediazona