In Ulan-Ude, court re-examines the case of journalists, who spread leaflets about deportation of Caucasian nations

On April 14, the Sovietskiy District Court of the city of Ulan-Ude started reconsidering the case of the Buryat journalists Nadezhda Nizovkina and Tatiana Stetsura on charges of inciting social hatred to employees of law enforcement bodies in their article about deportation of Caucasian nations. On April 29, another session took place, where the prosecution witnesses were questioned.

Let us remind you that on January 19 the Sovietskiy District Court of Ulan-Ude found Tatiana and Nadezhda guilty of inciting hatred and enmity towards militaries and law enforcers and fined each of them by 100,000 roubles.

However, the verdict passed by the former judge Irina Levandovskaya was cancelled - under Stetsura's and Nizovkina's complaint - by the Cassation Board of the Supreme Court of Buryatia back on March 10 this year. The fine appointed by Levandovskaya was found to be unlawful, and the main evidences of the prosecution - unacceptable.

Trial continues

On April 29, another session took place, chaired by Judge Ayuna Popova, where it became clear that the operational videotape with some "obvious evidences", as stated by law enforcers, "was destroyed". The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from Elena Maglevannaya, a journalist and human rights activist, who wrote about torture of prisoners from Northern Caucasus in Russian prisons, and who received political asylum in Finland in late 2010.

She said that the court session again failed to question the Buryat journalist Kislov, also summoned on the initiative of the prosecution as a witness, but who is still away on business.

"The defendants presented to the court their preliminary list of witnesses for the defence, whom they offer to hear during the trial. The next session was appointed on May 6," said Maglevannaya.

"Nadezhda Nizovkina and Tatiana Stetsura woke up Buryatia"

Pavel Lyuzakov, editor-in-chief of the edition "Svobodnoe Slovo" (Free Speech), said that prosecution of Nizovkina and Stetsura began with the leaflet "Buryatia, Don't Be Andijan", in which the girls defended Imam Bakhtiyar Umarov, who was building a mosque and was arrested in Ulan-Ude.

"The local FSB disliked such religious activity (building a mosque): they opened a case against Bakhtiyar with alleged suspicions of extremism in Uzbekistan, although Umarov has been living in Russia for 10 years and even received Russian citizenship. He was arrested and prepared for deportation to Uzbek security agents, who don't like long talks: torture and 15-20 years in colony. That's why the girl issued a leaflet on the matter," said Lyuzakov.

According to his story, then, real shadowing and numerous operative actions began. "The local FSB was eager to know who was behind them, they wanted very much to reveal some plot," said the journalist and added that the criminal case under Article 282 - for inciting hatred against four agencies at the same time - the Russian army, the FSB, the MIA and the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as "FSIN") - was initiated after the girls released their leaflet dedicated to February 23.

"What has the FSIN to do with it? The point was that it became clear during the inquiry that Tatiana Stetsura and Nadezhda Nizovkina published an article in the 'Svobodnoe Slovo' in defence of the Volgograd journalist Elena Maglevannaya, which at the time was suing prison officials. Maglevannaya had reported about facts of torture in Volgograd colonies; she was brought to trial for that; and the girls decided to stand up in her defence," said Pavel Lyuzakov.

According to his story, the case went on fairly sluggishly. "They change investigators, conducted examination, one more fantastic than the other. It was clear that most likely the case would end in nothing. But things had changed. Nadezhda Nizovkina and Tatiana Stetsura woke Buryatia up. In October last year the city of Ulan-Ude joined the protest actions 'Strategy-31'. For the first time on October 31 the capital of Buryatia saw a rally with a demand to the authorities to respect Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Another rally was scheduled on December 31, 2010, where Tatiana and Nadezhda were the organizers, as co-chairs of the local branch of the Solidarity Movement," said the source.

Mr Lyuzakov said that law enforcers had tried by all means to disrupt the earlier sanctioned rallies; they detained the journalists for any reason and announced warnings to them. "Even the court session was appointed right at the time of the rally. As a result, Nadezhda and Tatiana refused to obey to the authorities, including recognizance not to leave, citing the fact that they had not pleaded guilty, while the court tried to limit their constitutional right to express their civil protest. They were arrested on December 31, two hours before the rally," said Lyuzakov.

He points out that initially the trial was led to conditional sentences - the prosecutor asked for one year of conditional sentence for each episode; and there were four episodes, with probation period for two years.

According to Lyuzakov, at the judicial debates Tatiana Stetsura and Nadezhda Nizovkina, both having diplomas with honours of the university's law department, conclusively proved the weakness of all the charges; they stated in their last plea that they would not obey any restrictions of their probation and would continue their human rights and political activities at whatever cost.

"Also, they stated that the real imprisonment is of little concern for them. When in custody, the two girls refused to stand up before the prison authorities, believing it impossible for them to follow this humiliating procedure, since they did not admit their guilt, being, as they said, prisoners of war," said Lyuzakov.