Eight and a half – Newspaper Kommersant No. 230 (7431) dated 12/10/2022

On Friday, the Meshchansky Court of Moscow appointed eight years and six months in a penal colony to the well-known oppositionist Ilya Yashin (included in the register of foreign agents) for a YouTube broadcast, during which he spoke about the murders of residents of the Ukrainian Bucha. He was found guilty of disseminating deliberately false information about the Russian army motivated by political hatred (clause “d”, part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The maximum term under this article is ten years. Mr. Yashin himself did not admit guilt and claimed that he was only sharing his opinion with the audience. The oppositionist said that he would appeal the decision, and that he would spend the appointed term “with dignity”. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not evaluate the court’s decision.

The verdict to Ilya Yashin was supposed to be read out on Wednesday, but due to the sudden evacuation, the meeting was postponed to December 9. The process in the case of the oppositionist was regularly interrupted under the pretext of a fire alarm or other force majeure, although in general it took place without additional restrictions. So, everyone was allowed into the hall and even looked for chairs for those who lacked them, and as a result, more than a hundred people came to the announcement of the verdict.

However, at the meetings, the bailiffs interrupted attempts to speak with the oppositionist, and one day they even twisted and threw his father to the floor.

Recallthat the oppositionist was blamed for his comments on the news about the killings of civilians in Bucha, which he gave during a YouTube broadcast on his channel on April 7. Mr. Yashin read out and analyzed the versions of the Russian and Ukrainian sides, as well as some news from Russian and Western media, leaning towards the latter in terms of reliability. It should be noted that the laws on discrediting the army and military “fakes” introduced after the start of the special operation in Ukraine imply that any wording or information that does not correspond to Russian official sources is false.

Arguing that Ilya Yashin “provided in the affirmative under the guise of reliable information” about the killings of residents of Bucha, the prosecutor said, for example, that the oppositionist sympathized with news sources from “unfriendly countries”, stipulated that he adhered to an “anti-Soviet position”, talked about the violation of the rights of residents of Donbass and “enemy propaganda”. The prosecutor considered Yashin’s political hatred proved by “hostile” reviews about Russian journalists, authorities and military commissars.

The argumentation of the position of the prosecutor completely fell on the linguist of the Judicial Center of the Investigative Committee, Irina Savosina, who argued that Ilya Yashin did not talk about who killed the inhabitants of Bucha, but argued that only one version of the events presented by the Ukrainian side and the Western media was correct. At the same time, the oppositionist reacted “negatively” to the messages of the Russian side and criticized them, the expert explained in court. The oppositionist’s lawyers pointed out that some of her conclusions did not directly follow from the words spoken by the oppositionist. For example, in the words of Mr. Yashin that the inhabitants of Bucha were hiding in basements and their mobile communications were almost non-existent, she saw a hint that such conditions were created by Russian troops.

The expert replied that she interpreted, among other things, “implicitly said”. The prosecutor requested for Mr. Yashin nine years in prison and four years of a ban on using the Internet after the expiration of the term.

The line of defense was based on the fact that Mr. Yashin did not state anything, but retold other people’s versions and gave them a personal assessment. At the same time, the oppositionist could not check the sources of information, which means that he simply could not disseminate deliberately false information. Lawyers cited the Supreme Court, which, in clarifying a similar ban on the dissemination of “fake” about the coronavirus, indicated that the disseminator of information must know in advance that it is false. They also offered to subpoena a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense and read out international reports on the situation in Ukraine. However, the first court refused, and did not pay attention to the information provided.

The lawyers also insisted that the motive for political hatred should have been found in the specific statements of the oppositionist about Bucha, and generally denied accusations of inciting hatred, noting that the politician only criticized opponents. The final argument of the defense was that the law on military “fakes” does not correspond to the right to freedom of speech and opinion, the defense even asked to send a corresponding request to the Constitutional Court. However, the judge denied them this request as well, and considered the arguments of the defense as a whole to be “misleading”.

Ilya Yashin, in his last speech, stated that he does not admit guilt and sees the meaning of the criminal case in “isolating him from society” and “silencing him.”

He called the process “open and public”, but said that he expects a guilty verdict, which will be “the verdict of that part of society that wants to live peacefully and civilized.” Mr. Yashin wished supporters “not to give up” and, despite the “feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness”, “fight for their country, their cities and their streets.” “Well, don’t worry about me,” the oppositionist smiled at the end of his speech. Trust me.”

In addition to eight and a half years in a penal colony, the oppositionist was banned from administering Internet resources for four years after the end of his term. Lawyers announced their intention to appeal the decision of the court.

Kommersant’s special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov asked the president during a press conference in Bishkek if he considers the sentence against Ilya Yashin a “brutal term”

“After all, I received a basic education at the then Leningrad State University (at the Faculty of Law.— “b”), and I want to tell you that I consider interference in the activities of the courts absolutely unacceptable, I consider it inappropriate to question the decision of the court,” Mr. Putin replied.

Kira Heifetz