14 September 2010, 18:00
Trial by Chechen President's claim against Head of "Memorial" Human Rights Center declined the applications of the defense
At the trial by Ramzan Kadyrov, President of Chechen Republic's claim against Oleg Orlov, Head of "Memorial" Human Rights Center, on September, 13 judge Morozova declined the applications submitted by Henry Reznik, the defendant's attorney.
Reznik insisted on allotment of Andrey Krasenkov, the plaintiff's attorney at the process for the reason that he had formerly evidenced as Kadyrov's representative, i.e. had been interrogated as a witness. The judge spent almost two hours in the decision room and resolved declining the application.
The session lasted seven hours including three breaks.
Several times did Henry Reznik declare objections against the actions of presiding judge Morozova. For instance, when in reply to Orlov's statement that the essence of the charge was incomprehensible to him the judge herself started to explain him that, the defendant's attorney said she had no right to do it.
During the breaks both parties produced many comments for the journalists, including foreign ones. Krasenkov, Kadyrov's attorney, declared that "Chechnya was quite a safe, stable and prosperous region". He also promised that further sessions "would be more lively and evidentiary" and announced that the prosecuting party would need one more session only to accomplish producing all the proofs available.
Henry Reznik, the defendant's attorney, while commenting on his expectancy of victory noted that "according to statistic data, Russian courts adjudged less than one per cent of acquittals". "That is why we only have one chance against ninety nine and we must take it", he said.
The defendant himself wonders why the opposite party's behavior is so "unpredictable". "First the civil process was stopped because it was reported of Kadyrov mother's request to stop prosecution. Now a criminal process is going on and it emerges that Kadyrov had expected some public apologies from me but did not get them. It has even been difficult to us to get an explanation of the essence of accusation", Oleg Orlov said.
Author: Lydia Mikhalchenko Source: CK correspondent