On January 23, a stated meeting with regard to case of Nikolai Kochetkov was held in Syktyvkar. Let us recall that on May 18, 2013, nationalists tried to disrupt the open general meeting of the Komi Memorial Human Rights Commission in Syktyvkar in timeclub "Campus".
Then, immediately after the meeting started, members of the "Rubezh Severa" movement broke into the cafe. This brawl culminated in the street, where the attackers poured ketchup on defenders, and one of them — Nikolai Kochetkov — hit I. Sazhin.
Photo: Andrei Shopsha, "Krasnoye Znamya"
N. Kochetkov fled from justice and was put on the wanted list. As it turned out, accused of assaulting Nikolai Kochetkov was detained on December 19 and placed under arrest.
At the meeting on January 20, the young man pleaded not guilty and said that he hit someone back in autopilot mode and "accidentally" hit the human rights activist; there were no hooliganism in his actions. In the courtroom, it was also found out that N. Kochetkov was previously convicted under article 111 ("Intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm"), during 2013 was held administratively liable, and, according to «7x7», is currently a target in another investigation criminal case related to drugs.
As judged by the testimony of the defendant, which he announced during his interrogation at the previous meeting, the decision to attend a meeting of "Memorial" with A. Kolegov and his team-mates was spontaneous; however, it became clear from the read off testimonies of police officers, that the Republican Department for Countering Extremism knew about the planned provocation in advance, and therefore there were law-enforcement officers on duty close to the meeting place of the Human Rights Commission.
January 23, meeting began with a video of the "Campus" timeclub, where the incident occurred. On video the moment when N. Kochetkov hit I. Sazhin can be seen. Defendant reiterated that doesn’t consider himself an activist of "Rubezh Severa"; he met with A. Kolegov in 2008, who, according to Kochetkov, recently helped him to register the LLC. The defendant insisted that he hit V. Torlopov back, and he doesn’t feel himself to be a bully.
Representative of the victim, Alexander Kikot’, presented the court the printed screenshots of the blog entry of A. Kolegov in LiveJournal devoted to the events at the meeting of human rights defenders. He quoted a part directly related to the subject of the trial: "Didn’t immediately realize whence the strike came, our activist gave Sazhin a double strike, from which a Fuhrer of human rights defenders lightly smashed."
At the request of the prosecution the printout, despite disagreement of defense counsel, was deposited as an evidence of N. Kochetkov’s "Rubezh Severa" affiliation, as well as confirmation that there were two strikes, like in the testimony of the witnesses.
Moreover, A. Kikot’ petitioned the court to review the video that was made by a board member of the "Memorial" Semen Tereshonkov at the controversial meeting, but the court refused adduction of the video.
After a brief debate, the prosecution asked the accused to appoint a penalty under paragraph "a" of Part 2 of Article 116 ("Beating of hooliganism") in the form of imprisonment in colony with a strict regime for 1 year 8 months.
The defender of N. Kochetkov disagreed with the prosecution, because, he said, his client's guilt was confirmed only partially, in particular, incriminating evidence that strikes were ruffian-like.
“He was hit, and he was intented to hit Torlopov, he wasn’t intented to hit Sazhin. He wrote a cross-application on Torlopov, that confirms antipathy to him, not to Sazhin,” the defender of N. Kochetkov said.
In addition, he believes that there is no indication of the defendant to be a member of the nationalist organization and asked to redefine Article 116 Part 1, not connected with imprisonment.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for January 27.
Viktor Ivanov , «7x7»
Original: http://7x7-journal.ru/item/36745
