Former judge fails to prove his innocence in court
The lawyer famous for his critical note in the complaint book of Rahachou Court has been trying to fight the new system for five years in vain.
The Office of the Public Prosecutor has decided to reconsider his case again this year.
A Zhlobin lawyer Syrhei Yarashevich has been vainly trying to prove that
he did not commit the crime he was accused of and returned guilty of by
his colleagues from the local court for five years. Syarhei has told
ERB that he had worked in Zhlobin District Court for 5 years and had
been a lawyer for seven more years. However, he failed to prove his
innocence when he found himself on the dock.
Everything started with a complaint of a former policeman who claimed that the lawyer had beaten him.
Syarhei
Yarashevіch: “He complained that I got out of my car when I was driving
along a Zhlobin street. I hit him two times and fled. According to his
complaint, I did it at 5 p.m. on July 15, 2005”.
Yarashevіch admits that he did drive past the place mentioned in the
complaint at that time. However, he claims that he never stopped and did
not beat anyone. An extract from “the victim’s” sick-list could be used
as a proof. According to it, he asked for medical assistance at 10 p.m.
He told doctors that he had received the injuries during an everyday
occurrence two hours before. It turns out he was beaten at 8 p.m.
instead of 5 p.m. – the time he indicated in his complaint.
Syarhei Yarashevіch: “I defended a guy who had beaten a Zhlobin
inter-district prosecutor when I was a lawyer. And it resulted in
numerous problems. I was summoned to the police office and they told me:
“You have offended our prosecutor and he has asked to do everything to
punish you and to make you refuse from advocacy”. I said that the person
had signed a contract with me and defending him was my duty”.
“The
victim’s” former wife and a man who came when he saw that witnesses of
the incident were being looked for witnessed against Yarashevich.
However, the man refused to give evidence during the trial.
Syarhei
Yarashevіch: “A witness was found but he confessed later: “Syarhei
Dzmitryyevich, I was shown you photo and they told me that the person
had to be “calumniated”. He was a police traitor who had imprisoned a
lot of our people. But that witness said: “Honourable court, I have
calumniated this person because I did not know he was a lawyer”.
However,
the court did not pay attention either to the inconsistency of the
mentioned time of the incident or to the confession of that witness.
Furthermore, the case of Yarashevich’s hooliganism was not investigated
by local policemen as it had to be done. It was investigated by Rahachou
Office of the Public Prosecutor. As a result, Rahachou Court fined the
lawyer for 3 million roubles and disbarred him from practice.
The
former lawyer complained to the regional court. The case was sent … to
Rahachou Court again and it did not change its sentence. The insulted
lawyer criticized the work of the judges who were in charge of his case
in the complaint book. And he had to pay for it too.
Syarhei
Yarashevіch: “The judges complained about my actions: they said I had
insulted them during the trial. The Public Prosecutor instantly started a
criminal case according to article 381 and sent it to Svetlahorsk Court
that sentenced me to two years of correctional work for contempt of
court”.
The regional court cancelled the sentence after a
linguistic expertise but the fine for the first “violation” remained in
power. Yarashevich decided to prove his innocence instead of paying the
fine. Furthermore, the former wife of “the victim” renounced her
evidence and confessed that she had calumniated the lawyer.
Syarhei Yarashevіch: “I addressed the head of the regional
court four times after that and visited the Supreme Court four times, I
tried to prove that I had not committed the crime and indicated at the
discrepancies mentioned in the case itself. I turned to the President’s
Administration, the Security Service and sent telegrams to the President
several times, I wrote to the deputy of the House of Representatives of
Zhlobin constituency”.
However, he says that it was in vain –
he received formal replies from everywhere. Nobody cares that witnesses
confessed that they had lied during the trial. The Administration
replied that they did not have a right to interfere in the court’s terms
of reference.
Syarhei Yarashevich’s case will be investigated by Zhlobin Office of the
Public Prosecutor again now. The senior prosecutor’s assistant Andrei Anushka is in charge of it. According to him, the case is knotty but they will try to puzzle it out and to come to some conclusion.
Andrei Anushka: “We will be impartial and inform him about the decision. I cannot say anything good or bad about him (Yarashevich - ERB).
You can discuss the case for hours but the information should be
unbiased. The story is really knotty, it is stale and there are numerous
circumstances. We will have to investigate it thoroughly. Let him wait –
there will be a result and we will come to some conclusion”.
The
prosecutor’s assistant has admitted that Yarashevich has a motive for
being dissatisfied with the court and the investigation. However, he has
promised to deal with the case impartially.
Photo by Zmitser Lukashuk