A case was found for a communist

In Novosibirsk, on Tuesday, the trial of Vice Mayor Artem Skatov (KPRF) began, who is accused of slandering State Duma deputy from the Novosibirsk region Dmitry Savelyev (United Russia). According to the investigation, in February 2022, the communist turned to the administrator of the Sovereign Telegram channel with a request to post “negative information” about United Russia’s alleged connection with a construction company. The official himself calls the criminal case “pressure on the city authorities” and asks to consider it in another region.

On February 14, the first hearing in the criminal case against Artem Skatov was held in the Magistrate’s Court of the Dzerzhinsky District of Novosibirsk. The deputy and fellow party member of the communist mayor Anatoly Lokot is accused of spreading slander against deputy Dmitry Savelyev using the Internet (part 2 of article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, up to two years in prison).

The case was opened in March 2022. Its materials say that on February 14, 2022, the vice-mayor, via a messenger, turned to a familiar administrator of the Sovereign Telegram channel with a request to publish “negative information” about Mr. Savelyev free of charge. The text attached to the message talked about the affiliation of the parliamentarian with a construction company and his actions in the interests of deputies of various levels. The official allegedly forbade correcting the publication, allowing only grammatical errors to be corrected. The same day the text was published. The investigation believes that the communist was driven by motives of personal hostility.

In July, Artyom Skatov’s house and his office were searched. After that, seven deputies of the City Council from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation sent a letter to Anatoly Seryshev, presidential envoy in the Siberian Federal District, with a request to “assess the adequacy and validity of the actions of the police.” “The search carried out in a forceful form was organized just a day before his (Mr. Skatov.— “b”) a planned wedding that was cancelled. Such actions can be regarded as an act of intimidation, forceful and political pressure on the authorities of the city of Novosibirsk, ”the appeal said. The vice-mayor himself also repeatedly said that he regards the accusations of slander “as an attempt to put pressure on the city authorities.”

Dmitry Savelyev previously explained to the local media that he filed a complaint with the police on the fact of a slanderous publication, but his “customers” are unknown to him. For the duration of the preliminary investigation, the court removed Artem Skatov from his post, arguing that the official “has access to unhindered media coverage of the criminal proceedings, which may adversely affect its conduct.” In December 2022, the case went to trial.

At the beginning of the trial, Ivan Rassolov, the defendant’s lawyer, filed a motion to transfer the case to another region, explaining that all justices of the peace of the Novosibirsk Region were subject to disqualification. According to him, Deputy Savelyev’s assistant was previously Natalia Krasovskaya, who now holds the post of deputy chairman of the Novosibirsk Legislative Assembly, and the regional parliament, in turn, appoints justices of the peace and extends their powers. The defender left the region where the case should have been sent to the discretion of the court. The representative of the deputy and the public prosecutor objected to the satisfaction of the defense petition. The court will make a decision on this issue at a meeting on February 17.

The defense of the vice-mayor has repeatedly declared the groundlessness of the charges against him, arguing that the investigation was carried out one-sidedly, and the arguments of the lawyer were ignored. “The case materials do not contain any evidence that Artem Skatov is related to the publication of the article on the Telegram channel,” Mr. Rassolov told Kommersant, adding that prior to the publication of the controversial information, articles similar in meaning were published on news sites. The investigation, according to the lawyer, committed a lot of procedural violations, which is the basis for returning the criminal case to the prosecutor. The defender intends to petition for this in subsequent court hearings.

Konstantin Voronov, Novosibirsk