Rights defender Nagavkin complains about violations during expertise of his case

The linguistic expertise, which has formed the basis of the case of disorganizing the work of the SIZO (pre-trial prison), was conducted with violations, Igor Nagavkin, a Volgograd human rights defender, has stated this in his complaint and asked that the experts be held accountable.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 14, at a court hearing of the case of disorganizing the SIZO work, Nagavkin asked to treat the linguistic expertise of his statements as unacceptable proof. The expertise was conducted with gross violations of the law, Igor Nagavkin has explained.

He himself stated that law enforcers had provoked him by placing him into a cell with "paedophiles," which caused a conflict with the SIZO staff on May 15, 2023. On December 26, 2023, Yulia Novak, the author of the expertise, was questioned in court. She regarded the swear words addressed by Nagavkin to the SIZO staff as a threat to their lives. Nagavkin then claimed that the expert had made her conclusions "to please investigators."

Also, according to his version, Ms Novak failed to inform the court about the technique she had used during the expertise, and whether this technique was registered with the Ministry of Justice. "This casts doubt on her qualification at all," Nagavkin has stated.

He also disagrees with the expert's interpretation of his phrases containing profanity. He insists that the phrases he used are phraseological units, and not specific threats, as the expert had concluded.

"The main thing in this case is that if the expert's work is declared illegal, the prosecution of Igor Nagavkin will stop, since his accusation was based only on the expert's conclusion," Sergey Ivaschenko, a lawyer, has explained.