28 August 2008, 16:44
Krasnodar Territory: journalist Rozhkov sentenced to 3.5 years at colony-settlement
Yesterday, on August 27, the court in Krasnodar Territory sentenced journalist Sergey Rozhkov under part 1, Article 318, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, to 3.5 years of freedom restriction at a colony-settlement for "use of violence against a power representative."
Let us remind you that Sergey Rozhkov, a 3rd category invalid, while in custody at the temporary isolation facility of the city of Tuapse, went on a hunger strike in protest against "absurd charges" and "biased justice".
The judicial consideration of Rozhkov's case began on August 15. According to Rozhkov's friends, his advocate Valentin Sukonnikov did almost nothing to seek witnesses and "behaved extremely strange." The journalist's friends think that the advocate could have been intimidated.
At the last court session, the advocate was dismissed from the case. But Sukonnikov himself insists that he wrote an application, in which he gave up his advocate's status because of his poor state of health. "To tell the truth, I'm too tired already. I wanted to finish Sergey's case, although there will be a guilty verdict for sure. The case is organized very well, it's a whole combination," the former defender said in his conversation with the correspondent of the "Nezavisimaya Gazeta".
