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Case of Boris Feldman and the bank „Slavianskiy“.

13.12.2002   
(Press-release of the attorney firm „Ageev, Berezhnoy and partners“)

The authorities did not care to give the trial over B. Feldman even the semblance of legal correctness.

After the court robbed Boris Feldman and his advocate of the opportunity to take part in the debates, judges of the Artemovsk court of Lugansk committed another offense against justice: they ruled to deprive Feldman of his last plea and to move him off the courtroom.

At the court session on 17 April 2002 Feldman tried to continue his last plea. We stress that Feldman did not brake order during the trial, he spoke calmly and touched only upon the questions directly connected with the case. On that day Feldman told what position he occupied in the bank, explained some aspects of the bank activities and commented from this viewpoint the information stated in the accusation act.

Unexpectedly presiding judge Stanislav Lubianoy announced that the judges would retire to the conference room to decide if Feldman may be permitted to continue his speech.

After returning from the conference room judge Lubianoy declared the decision. The decision read: „In his last plea the defendant began to expound the arguments and reasons, which he had already stated being interrogated as an accused, to pronounce political declarations, to insist upon the political, ordered character of the case, to express negative opinions about the investigating officers, experts and other persons involved in the investigation, to threaten the prosecutor’s officers participating in the case, to quote some excerpts from textbooks on criminal law“. (It should be noted that Feldman did not threaten the prosecutor’s officers, but tried to explain them that, supporting the accusation possessing no corpus delicti, they violated law, and proposed them to refuse from the accusation, since it was obviously groundless).

The decision ruled by the court was astonishing: „to deprive Feldman of the last plea and to move him off the courtroom“.

After this judge Lubianoy declared that the bench would leave to take the verdict.

Thus, probably, the verdict will be announced in the absence of Boris Feldman. It seems that the judges have not enough courage to read the verdict in his presence.

Not long before Boris Feldman, having finished the analysis of the first episode of the accusation, where he indisputably demonstrated the absence of the event of crime, addressed prosecutor Sergey Burdeyny: „You demand to condemn me to nine years with confiscating the property? And can you look in my eyes?“ The eye-witnesses saw how S. Burdeyny, the head of a department of the General prosecutor’s office and a senior law counselor, bowed his head low. He really did not dare to look in Feldman’s face. It is difficult to imagine a greater disgrace for a state prosecutor.

The court ruling about depriving an accused of his last plea is unprecedented in all the history of the Ukrainian justice. The operating criminal-procedural laws directly point out that a court has no right to limit the time of the last plea, and that an accused may be moved off the courtroom only if he brakes order during the trial.

The position of B. Feldman’s advocates is that, having ruled such a decision, the judges committed crimes against justice, namely the crimes envisaged by Article 365 (misuse of power and service authorities), Article 374 (abusing the right for defense) and Article 375 (ruling a deliberately illegal decision) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The court announced the break until Friday, 19 April, 3 p.m.

To sum up, the judges made a great number of various violations: passing the case to the trial, which territorially has no right to consider the case; depriving advocate of their right to hand petitions and complaints; prohibition to the advocates to communicate with Feldman in court building; refusal of the judges to consider the challenges; illegal threats concerning the advocates; drawing the advocates to the disciplinary responsibility initiated by judge Lubianoy; starting debates before finishing the court investigation; denying Feldman and his advocates the right to speak during the debates, and so on. Certainly, after all this, the verdict was predictable.

It is difficult to say, why the authorities needed this process, why they did not announce the verdict at once, like in Stalin’s time? To create the illusion of justice? Yet, it is obvious that there was not even such an illusion. Why the ruling about prohibiting the last plea began with the words: „The last plea of a defendant is his unalienable right guaranteed by the Constitution and protected by court“? Why the judges needed to draw attention to the fact that they robbed the accused of his unalienable right? To stress the cynicism, with which they ignored the Constitution? How may judges publicly mock the Constitution and justice in such an insolent way?

Is it possible that the erroneous opinion about their own impunity is so deeply implanted in the judges’ brains? But nothing shall be unpunished and forgotten.

In what follows we publish the complete text of the ruling pronounced by judge Lubianoy (transcription from the audio record of the trial).

RULING

17 April 2002, Lugansk

The Artemovsk court of Lugansk consisting of judges Lubianoy, Kosminin and Storozhuk, secretary Beliakova, prosecutors Burdeyny and others, advocates Ageev and others, considered in the town of Lugansk the case of Feldman and Zaslavskiy, and ruled:

The last plea of a defendant is his unalienable right guaranteed by the Constitution and protected by court.

At the same time the contents of the last plea, as well as the time given for it may not be limited. An accused has the right to mention any arguments and reasons defending him. Yet, if the accused uses his last plea for the purposes incompatible with the tasks of justice, the presiding judge has the right to stop him and to warn about the consequences of such behavior. If the defendant does not react properly, the court may rule to deprive the accused of the last plea and to move him off the courtroom according to Article 272 part 1 of the Criminal-Procedural Code of Ukraine (CPC).

Feldman was given the right to declare his last plea, which right he used from 11 to 17 April 2002.

In his last plea the defendant began to expound the arguments and reasons, which he had already stated being interrogated as an accused, to pronounce political declarations, to insist upon the political, ordered character of the case, to express negative opinions about the investigating officers, experts and other persons involved in the investigation, to threaten the prosecutor’s officers participating in the case, to quote some excerpts from textbooks on criminal and civil law.

The analysis of the speech of the accused Feldman from 11 to 17 April 2002 in the courtroom testifies on the brutal misuse of his right for last plea, on distorting the very essence of last plea, on using the plea for compromising the principles and tasks of justice.

Being more than once warned about his duty to follow the procedure of the court session, in particular twice, on 11 and 15 April, about the possibility of using against him part 1 Article 272 of the CPC, Feldman drew no conclusions and continued to violate the procedure of declaring the last plea.

Basing on the stated above and on Articles 272 part 1 and 273, the court

r u l e d:

to deprive Feldman of the last plea and to move him off the courtroom
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