One juror appeared at a high-profile contract murder trial in the Moscow region

The defendant’s wife begs residents of the Moscow region to take part in the hearing

On November 29, the Moscow Regional Court will host the next jury selection in the criminal case against the coach of the country’s youth MMA team, Vladimir Osiyu. He is suspected of organizing the murder of the director of the shopping center Nikolai Leonov, but the most interesting thing is not even the plot of the accusation, but the details of the trial. The coach’s wife decided to publicly appeal to residents of the Moscow region with a call to fulfill their civic duty. The fact is that this is not the first selection for people’s judges, and the previous time… one candidate came to it! At the same time, about 30,000 people received invitations.

One out of 30,000 is certainly a new anti-record. But why do people not want to serve on juries and how can this be influenced? The MK columnist examined the example of a separate case.

Vladimir Osiya was detained in the spring of 2020 as part of a group of organizers and executors of a contract killing. A year later, the case was sent to court, where it was to be considered by a jury. Then it was assembled the first time. And then miracles began.

Over the course of the year, the state prosecutor called several jurors for various, sometimes controversial, reasons. One – for drinking kvass in a can (the prosecutor considered that it was a drink that contained alcohol). There was an interesting story about another juror.

“The representative of the state prosecution asked the witnesses many different questions,” says the wife of the accused. – For example, what kind of meat did the murdered man like? What kind of pants did he wear? How many times did you change clothes? How often does he go to the bathhouse? All this really delayed the process. Each meeting lasted 7-8 hours. Everyone was very tired. And so, when they began to ask the saleswoman of the store, of which the murdered man was a co-founder, what kind of milk he liked, she answered in bewilderment that she had no idea. Juror number 8 freaked out and said something like: “Are you kidding me?!” And the prosecutor immediately took him away, arguing that he was biased towards the position of the state prosecution.

After this, the panel disbanded because there were not enough jurors in the main composition (and the reserve ones had already “ran out”). For the uninitiated, let me explain: the work that was carried out by the dissolved board is not taken into account. Everything needs to be done again with a different jury. Meanwhile, witnesses who testified in court often refuse to do so again.

Assembling a new board was not easy. The first time 32 people came.

“We only eliminated two of them,” says the lawyer. – But the rest themselves didn’t want to.

As a result, the board was not assembled. The next time fewer candidates came. Then even less. The last time 4-5 people came. At first they believed that spring was to blame (no one cares about going to court), then that summer was to blame (people are on vacation). Hopes were pinned on autumn. But in vain.

On November 4, 2023, a single candidate for jury duty appeared.

All the time until they can assemble a board, the coach is in a pre-trial detention center. His little daughter doesn’t remember her dad at all, but she knows that he exists. But the case has not even begun to be considered…

This story is very revealing. Courts in many regions began to complain that people were not serving on juries. It is impossible to force them to become people’s assessors, and what frightens citizens is that the process can last a very long time. And here, as they say, the role of the prosecution representative is really great. It is up to the prosecutor to inspire doubting candidates (rather than frighten them with difficulties), to make the process itself more dynamic (without delaying it). But, alas, it seems that such a task is not facing him.