RUSSIA, Nizhniy Novgorod. On January 18th, in Nizhniy Novgorod, the District Attorney asked the court to sentence Editor- in- Chief of the newspaper ?Human Rights│, Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, to 4 years in a penal colony. Dmitriyevsky is charged with publishing an open statement from Ahmet Zakaev and Aslan Maskadov in the newspaper. Today-s court session was the final stage of process v final arguments. The District Attorney, Maslovam accused Dmitriyevsky of propagating information about the Russian- Chechen conflict that reflects the point of view of Zakaev and Maskadov. Justifying the need for a rigid sentence, she referred to international human rights standards, an increase in xenophobia in the country, and the need for tolerance. She also focused the court-s attention on what she called Dmitriyevsky-s attempts to use the court as scene for the statement of his political views. Dmitriyevsky, according to her, feels complete impunity.
Both defenders of Dmitriyevsky demanded a just sentence. In their presentations, they showed the falseness of the charge that Dmitriyevsky-s action kindled international and racial dissension, as well as numerous other contradictions in charges, procedural issues in the preliminary hearings, and nonconformity of the charges to the standards of the Russian Constitution and international law. The attorneys pointed to the practice of the European Court for Human Rights, analyzing in detail different precedents concerned with the protection of freedom of speech and the rights of journalists.
Stanislav Dmitriyevsky criticized the expert report of L.Kislenko, accusing it of elementary illiteracy and incompetence. For instance, it calls Russians and Chechens different races. Demonstrating ignorance of Russian grammar, it argued that in the word combination "Putin-s regime", Dmitriyevsky specifically wrote the word "Putin" in lower-case, not with a capital, in order to express a negative attitude to the President of Russia. Dmitriyevsky gave many other proofs of the incompetence of the expert, whose conclusion is the basis of the charge. He demanded a just sentence.
The trial was held in open court in the Sovietsky region of Nizhny Novgorod. Identification was required to enter the courtroom. The surnames of all of those who observed the proceedings were recorded by the court in a special book. At the January 18th session, about 30 people were present in addition to those directly involved on the proceedings, among whom were many well-known Moscow human rights activists. Before the process began, approximately ten local activists of the movement ?Our│ picketed the buildings of the court with posters charging Dmitriyevsky with treason and friendship with terrorists.
On January 18th, closing arguments ended. The defendant-s final statement and the issuing of the sentence were postponed until February 3rd.