Yuri Shevchuk lost the concert in court – Newspaper Kommersant No. 236 (7437) of 12/20/2022
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The Supreme Court (SC) of Bashkiria denied Yuri Shevchuk’s defense an appeal against an earlier decision to fine the leader of the rock group DDT for 50,000 rubles. for discrediting the army. Lawyer Alexander Peredruk tried to prove that the musician “has the right” to speak from the stage, guaranteed by the Constitution. Police representatives retorted that the “concert event” does not involve statements of the position of an individual on socially significant political topics.
On Monday, the Supreme Court of Bashkiria considered Yuri Shevchuk’s appeal against rendered a few months ago, the decision of the court of first instance to fine the artist for 50 thousand rubles. for discrediting the army (part 1 of article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). As previously reported by Kommersant, the report on Yuri Shevchuk was drawn up by employees of the 7th department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Ufa on May 18, 2022 after the concert, during which the musician, in particular, said: “Motherland is not the president’s ass to procrastinate and kiss her ”, and also spoke critically about the events related to the special military operation. On the screens behind him, the phrases appeared: “Don’t shoot” (this is the name of one of the most famous DDT songs) and “No to war”. The next day, the material on bringing the DDT leader to administrative responsibility was received by the Sovetsky District Court of Ufa, which transferred the case to the Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg, at the place of residence of Mr. Shevchuk. However, soon the materials returned back to Ufa.
The Petersburg court found that the protocol did not describe the event of the offense, and also did not indicate what exactly the public calls for obstructing the use of the RF Armed Forces were expressed.
A new protocol was drawn up against Yuri Shevchuk. A month and a half later, the Dzerzhinsky District Court returned business in Ufa.
The judge of the Sovetsky District Court, Yulia Egorova, in making her decision on August 16, noted that Mr. Shevchuk’s statements contain a negative assessment of the president’s decision to conduct a military operation in Ukraine, expressed in an implicit form. The musician pleaded not guilty. In the appeal, he asked the court to pay attention to the procedural shortcomings, which, according to the lawyer Alexander Peredruk, representing the interests of the artist, entailed “significant violations of the principal’s rights to a fair trial.” The court in Ufa did not have the competence to consider the case, the defender argued, since it had previously granted the musician’s petition to transfer him to St. Petersburg, “thus, the appealed decision was issued by an illegal composition of the court.”
Commenting on the musician’s statements during the concert, the lawyer noted that he “has the right to do so”, guaranteed by the Constitution.
“The term ‘war’ in itself is not negative. And in this sense, to say that participation in the war discredits the armed forces is the same as accusing a hunter of killing an animal,” he said. It is impossible to bring citizens to administrative responsibility only because someone thinks differently, the defender insisted. “This is the task of the Constitution of the Russian Federation – to support political diversity, pluralism of opinions, regardless of whether you like it or not,” he addressed the Supreme Court of Bashkiria. “The decision of the Sovetsky District Court is nothing more than a punishment for freedom of expression.”
The court of first instance, continued Mr. Peredruk, did not explain exactly what words served as the basis for bringing Yuri Shevchuk to justice, while the psychological and linguistic conclusion of specialists showed that there were no signs of discrediting the army in his client’s speeches.
Emphasizing that “the judicial act is devoid of motivation and actually rewrites the content of the administrative protocol,” the lawyer asked the court to stop the proceedings.
The representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rashida Kamalova, in turn, asked to leave the court decision in force, rejecting all the arguments of Yuri Shevchuk’s defense. Her colleague Oleg Ermolaev also called the court’s decision “legal” and “reasonable.” “The venue that was provided for the performance of the rock group DDT assumed a concert event, and not a statement of the position of an individual on socially significant political topics,” he noted, adding that Yuri Shevchuk called the “war” of the NWO and thereby replaced the goals special operations. “None of the facts that Shevchuk stated have been confirmed,” said Mr. Yermolaev.
Judge of the Supreme Court of Bashkiria Khakim Akhmedzhanov upheld the decision of the Sovetsky District Court of Ufa. The reasoning part of the referee’s decision will be ready later. Alexander Peredruk promised to appeal this decision to the Sixth Court of Cassation and, if necessary, to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), where “there are chances for a positive outcome” (recallRussia does not recognize the decisions of the ECtHR made after the withdrawal of the Russian Federation from the jurisdiction of this court in March 2022).
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