Analytical review of the court proceedings on the criminal case of the citizens of the Russian Federation Artyom Breus and Ivan Gaponov. The last day.
On 10 March the trial of the criminal case of
the Russian citizens Artyom Breus and Ivan Gaponov, charged with participation
in the ‘mass riot’ on 19 December 2010, continued at the Maskouski District
Court of Minsk with participation of Judge Liubou Siamakhina, prosecutor
Siarhei Kunas and lawyers Alena Kazak and Liudmila Siarheyeva.
The judge read the names of the fifteen police officers who had allegedly
received injuries during the 19 December rally (Bozhka, Bulavatski, Davydovich,
Dziankevich, Filipenka, Karavai, Kashtalan, Komar, Kudrautsou, Lavitski,
Masalski, Palavinkin, Sapach, Volkau, Ziankevich) and declared them victims in
the case, despite the objections of the counsels.
The lawyers also protested against questioning these people as witnesses,
because they had been confessed witnesses on 17-18 February and therefore
couldn’t have any relation to the case. By the way, this opinion is shared by
human rights defenders. Nevertheless, the motion was dismissed by the judge.
The prosecutor started questioning the defendants according to the new charges.
Artyom Breus and Ivan Gaponov pleaded innocent. They repeated the testimonies
that had been given by them on 22 February 2011, during the previous court
sitting. Both of them confessed being in the Nezalezhnastsi Square on 19 December 2011
because of interest to the events. They said they had no intention to
participate in a mass riot and hadn't taken part in it, hadn't committed any
violent actions and hadn't demolished any property.
The questioning
of victims followed the questioning of Breus and Gaponov. All the 15 are
officers of the special mission police regiment of the Main Police Department
of the Minsk City Executive Committee. They were confessed witnesses by rulings
of the investigation of 17-18 February 2011. All of them were examined by
forensic expertise, according to which they received injuries of various
degrees of severity: from light one (which didn't entail short-term health
disorder) to beating and "feeling of physical pain". In their
testimonies, the victims described actions of the rally participants as
"aggressive" and accompanied with blows and kicks on their baffles
and helmets. Some of the victims stated they had been dragged out of the police
cordon, somebody had attempted to tear off helmets from their heads or had done
it, an action participant had poured them from a fire extinguisher, as a result
of which one of them had suffered a light burn of respiratory tracts. At the
same time, a large group of victims stated they hadn't seen demonstrators
holding any things in their hands. Victim Palavinkin, a policeman in civvies
who guarded the public order on the square, stated that the majority of the
action participants had behaved quietly. Groups of people stood there and
discussed something, holding transparencies and flags in their hands. He didn't
see any other things (metal bars, sticks, etc.) in their hands. What should be
noticed – some phrases in the protocols of interrogation of the victims are
absolutely identical. The interrogations were held on 17-18 February 2011,
during the time when the victims underwent the forensic expertise, i.e. two
months after the events. Being asked whether they had seen the defendants
during the 19 December, all victims answered that they saw Breus and Gaponov
for the first time. Answering the question of the defense whether they
considered themselves as victims of the defendants' actions, the victims
answered they didn't.
Having studied the written materials of the case, the judge declared the end of
the court investigation and the beginning of the pleadings.
State prosecutor S. Kunas took the floor first. In his speech he stated that
the guilty of A. Breus and I. Gaponov in violating Article 293, part 2 of the
Criminal Code of the Republic
of Belarus was completely
proved. However, he considered it possible to use Article 70 of the Criminal Code
of the Republic
of Belarus: "The
issue of milder punishment than provided for the given crime". According
to the state accusation, the exceptional circumstances in this case are that
the accused were young people without previous convictions, their actions
didn't entail hard consequences and the whole scope of the material damage
resulting from the crime had been compensated.
Counsels Alena Kazak and Liudmila Siarheyeva asked in their speeches for a
complete justification of A. Breus and I. Gaponov in connection with the
absence of corpus delicti in their actions. According to their opinion, the
events of 19 December cannot be qualified as a mass riot, because they didn't
contain such necessary elements of mass riots as pogroms, arsons, property
demolition and armed resistance to the police. Moreover, according to the
opinion of the defense, the participation of Breus and Gaponov in the mass riot
wasn't proved. According to Article 293, part 2 of the Criminal Code, the
participation in a mass riot must be accompanied by realization of concrete
actions by the accused – arsons, pogroms, personal violence, demolition of
property and armed resistance to the police.
According to the verdict, Artyom Breus and Ivan Gaponov were found guilty of
the crime punished by Article 293, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. The court used Article 70 of
the Criminal Code to mitigate the sentence and fined both of them 10.5 million rubles (about
$3,470). The restraint in the form of custody was changed to written
undertaking not to leave and behave properly. The civil proceedings within the
limits of this criminal case were cancelled after the plaintiff revoked the
lawsuit due to the complete compensation of the material damage.
Conclusions of the Human Rights Center Viasna
The Human Rights Center Viasna reached the following conclusions on
the basis of monitoring of the court proceedings on the case of A. Breus and I.
Gaponov:
1. No evidence was presented at court that the events of 19 December 2010 in Nezalezhnasts
Square of Minsk were a mass riot, which must be accompanied with personal
violence, pogroms, arsons, demolition of property and armed resistance to public
officers.
2. No evidence was presented at court that A. Breus and I. Gaponov actively
participated in the mass riot. According to Article 293, part 2 of the Criminal
Code of the Republic
of Belarus, participation
in a mass riot manifests in the direct
use of personal violence, pogroms, arsons, defilement of property and armed
resistance to public officers.
3. The evidence that was presented to the court confirms only the personal
presence of A. Breus and I. Gaponov in the group of demonstrators in the Nezalezhnasts Square
near the central entrance of the Government House, which can by no means
constitute corpus delicti.
4. In such circumstances, the Human Rights Center Viasna considers that
the issued verdict is unlawful and must be abolished because of the absence of
corpus delicti in the actions of A. Breus and I. Gaponov.
5. The Human Rights Center Viasna insists on the complete acquittal of
the convicted, A. Breus and I. Gaponov.