On 19 January, Vitaly Cherkasov, legal counsel for Viktor Filinkov, held a press conference on his client\u2019s case in St Petersburg. After being under investigation for 13 months, Filinkov\u2019s case has now been sent to court, and Cherkasov is free to discuss the evidence. According to Cherkasov, there is no substantial evidence in the case file against his client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are concerned that the court will follow the prosecution\u2019s lead and hold the trial in camera,\u201d said Cherkasov. \u201cHaving studied the case file, we didn\u2019t find a single document that would count as a state secret or other secret. We want the trial to be monitored by the public. We believe that with the help of the public and the press, we can convince the court in an open hearing to examine the case objectively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Viktor Filinkov was detained at Petersburg Pulkovo airport on 23 January 2018, but he was arrested only on 25 January. Later Filinkov recounted how he was tortured by FSB officers throughout the intervening two days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe case file contains my client\u2019s testimony, which were given to the state-appointed lawyer,\u201d Cherkasov stated. \u201cThis lawyer did not pay attention to the bodily injuries sustained by Filinkov.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initially, Filinkov gave statements that were advantageous to the investigators, but after he appointed Cherkasov as his legal counsel, he stated that he had made false confessions under torture. Cherkasov then requested that the investigation consider the initial testimony as inadmissible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFilinkov had been deprived of sleep, rest, food and water,\u201d Cherkasov remarked. \u201cHe found himself demoralised and left without will to understand what was happening or to resist it. The practice of the Russian Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights suggests that such testimonies should be found inadmissible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cherkasov explained that Filinkov did not consider himself guilty from the beginning \u2013 and reading the evidence against him has only strengthened his resolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter this he nonetheless gave testimony to investigator Belyaev, in which he interpreted the case file in a way that he considered to be correct,\u201d Cherkasov clarified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cherkasov told the press conference about the testimony of Yuly Boyarshinov, another detainee in the \u201cNetwork\u201d case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the basis of Boyarshinov\u2019s statements, and an investigation report by criminal investigator Bondarev, it follows that Boyarshinov and his acquaintances participated in survival and self-defence classes run by a sports club. Cherkasov considers it strange that these particular young people were detained as terrorists given that many such clubs exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn his testimony, my client explained that they were not engaged in preparations for an armed uprising,\u201d Cherkasov remarked. \u201cYou all know full well that he associates himself with the anti-fascist movement, and that their opponents are nationalists. In his testimony Filinkov says: \u2018We used these same [survival and self-defence] techniques for gaining skills which could be used to defend ourselves in situations where clashes with our opponents are possible.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cherkasov also called attention to the fact that in the case files there were interrogation records, both from St Petersburg and Penza, which were identical down to the last comma: \u201cIt\u2019s like when a judge allegedly receives a USB stick with a copy of an indictment on it, and the text is then copied into the judge\u2019s verdict. It\u2019s the same in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prosecution\u2019s final indictment says that Filinkov played the role of a go-between in the \u201cNetwork\u201d, and that he \u201ctook measures to ensure his own security, by using a pseudonym, \u2018Gena\u2019\u201d. Cherkasov states that there is no evidence in the case file that Filinkov performed this role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case materials also state that Filinkov travelled from St Petersburg to Penza twice in 2016. According to the investigation\u2019s version of events, this trip was part of a plan to enter into a criminal conspiracy with the other defendants and participate in training with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFilinkov doesn\u2019t deny that he travelled to Penza and made friends with people who share his worldview, but he says that he didn\u2019t take part in any training sessions whilst doing this. His words are backed up by the case files: they contain no evidence of this,\u201d Cherkasov explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Filinkov also confirms that he took part in a conference attended by left-wing youth at the start of 2017 in St Petersburg, which brought people from Penza, Moscow and Belarus. The investigators believe that conference participants planned to discuss how to destabilise the country in order to start a revolution.
The prosecution has no evidence of this, according to Cherkasov. Only documents from the investigator of the Penza group are included in the case file. This amounts to a description of the structure of the \u201cNetwork\u201d and the supposed agenda of that conference on A4 paper \u2013 a document which, according to Cherkasov, could not be presented as evidence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe provenance of this document, who created it and when, is not recorded in the case file. The document contains nothing to suggest that it is the rally\u2019s agenda. It is impossible to determine that this text has something to do with my client and the other defendants in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you remember, the FSB initially said that the \u2018Network\u2019 was preparing terrorist attacks for during the Football World Cup. This information is also not present in the case file.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cherkasov prepared an eight-page official request to the investigators, arguing that the case, as it stands, cannot proceed to court. He requested that face-to-face meetings be held with other defendants in the case \u2013 some of them have also stated that they gave false confessions during torture. The investigator immediately issued a refusal (according to Cherkasov, without justification) while Cherkasov was still in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In January 2019, the first sentence in the case was handed out to Igor Shishkin, who made a deal with the investigators. The court proceedings were held under \u201cspecial procedure\u201d, which meant that the court did not examine evidence against the defendant. Shishkin admitted his guilt and confirmed everything that the investigators had written. He also testified against the other detainees and confirmed in court that he was prepared to do so again in the future. Cherkasov explained that Filinkov does not judge Shiskin for his actions:
\u201cViktor is unsure how he would have acted in Shishkin\u2019s place, when his wife \u2013 these are the words of my client \u2013 was taken hostage. Filinkov\u2019s wife turned out to be far away and they couldn\u2019t get to her, but Shishkin\u2019s wife was questioned by the FSB. My client understands perfectly that Shishkin\u2019s testimony will have consequences for his fate, but he doesn\u2019t hold a grudge against him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, Cherkasov recalled the position of the European Court on Human Rights: that a court should prioritise testimony given during the court hearing, even if a defendant initially admitted their guilt. He added that Filinkov is currently in a good spirits and is ready to face a guilty sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 19 January, Vitaly Cherkasov, legal counsel for Viktor Filinkov, held a press conference on his client\u2019s case in St Petersburg. After being under investigation for 13 months, Filinkov\u2019s case has now been sent to court, and Cherkasov is free to discuss the evidence. According to Cherkasov, there is no substantial evidence in the case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-artykul","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3227"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3232,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3227\/revisions\/3232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rupression.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}