Цитаты
Человек должен заново открыть в своей душе глубочайший смысл ответственности перед миром, что означает ответственность перед чем-то высшим, чем сам человек. Вацлав Гавел |
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Statement in connection with progress of investigation of R. Mirzayev’s case
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 Unexpected (and according to other estimates quite expected) turnabout took place in sensational case of Rasul Mirzayev.
It should be reminded that during a conflict on August 13, 2011 in the center of Moscow, near night club “Garage” R. Mirzayev inflicted a blow with his hand into Ivan Agafonov’s face. As a result, the aggrieved lost his balance and fell down striking against the asphalt with his head. During his fall he got heavy craniocerebral trauma from which he died in a hospital on August 18, 2011.
The case had broad public response. Rasul Mirzayev is a famous sportsman, world champion in sambo and mixed martial arts. He is supported by his fellow-countrymen and many colleagues-sportsmen. On the other hand the conflict took place on the wave of ethnic character confrontations when Russian nationalists spoke many times about the terror unleashed by “new-comers” against Russian population and about connivance of law-enforcement bodies to them. So the public watched the progress of the procedure intently.
The whole intrigue is how investigation would categorize I. Agafonov’s death – whether it happened as a result of “murder through inattentiveness” or “premeditated murder” – and extent of punishment of the person under investigation depended on this. Initially the proceedings were instituted under clause 111 part 4 of the CC of RF (premeditated causing of damage to health that led to death of the aggrieved) according to which 15-year imprisonment might threaten him. On January 12 investigation re-categorized the case under clause 109 (causing death through inattentiveness) which limited Mirzayev’s imprisonment to 2 years. The investigators decided that the stroke with the head against the asphalt but not Mirzayev’s blow was the reason for I. Agafonov’s death.
Naturally the mitigation of sentence caused opposite response of interested persons. The president of All-Russian and European federation of sambo Sergey Yeliseyev was glad for Mirzayev’s sake stating that “it was a common everyday situation – a man bothered a girl and another one struck him. Such thing may happen by accident, with anyone, but the lad fell unfortunately and died. I think that there was nothing deliberate in Rasul’s actions. And we have hysteria that started at once – let’s give him fifteen years. What for? Because the lad broke through into sports from the village, began performing successfully and making everyone glad. He was so good all the time and suddenly became so bad in a moment …”. No doubt the decision of investigators would be approved by Mirzayev’s admirers, countrymen and friends.
But the defense representing interests of the family of the aggrieved states that it was right the pressure on the part of influential officials connected with Eastern martial arts that could affect the mitigation of the sentence. The lawyer O. Mikhalkina notes the fact that two executed expert examinations contradict each other and asserts that “somebody tries to slant the task in favor of answer that is ready in advance”.
Director of Moscow bureau for human rights Alexander Brod: “Certainly it’s hard to make any final conclusions. O. Mikhalkina intends to apply for execution of one more else, additional expert examination. And one can’t exclude her considerations concerning pressure upon investigation – everybody knows well of what “puppet” character our justice is and how officials of various ranks interfere in investigation for various reasons. It is also well-known how high the corruption constituent in legal proceedings and in investigatory actions is. And taking into account that R. Mirzayev’s case causes serious public response going outside the limits of purely criminal case, the investigation should be executed absolutely impartially and legally perfectly so that it could not cause the next accusations on the part of nationalists of every stripe and accusations of corruption and protection of interested persons”. |
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