The truth was put in a cage: an unjust trial for Ukrainian Orthodox journalists

Orthodox journalists Valery Stupnitsky, Andrei Ovcharenko, Vladimir Bobechko and Father Sergius Chertilin at the court hearing. Photo: Siberian Journal of Journalists

Behind the scenes of the judicial system

The average person only sees courts in the news on TV or on the Internet. Some criminals sit in a glass booth, and fair judges give them a fair sentence. But few people imagine what is happening “from within.”

On the eve of the trial, late in the evening, a “longitudinal” comes into the cell and tells the name of the person who will have the hearing. Early in the morning you must be ready. You are taken out of the cell and taken to the “boxes” – this is a windowless room, about 3 square meters, a kind of storage tank where prisoners are stuffed before being transported to the courts. After half an hour or an hour of waiting, you are searched and taken to the exit from the pre-trial detention center, where a convoy is already waiting, who searches you again. In the case of “enemies of the people”, this convoy is carried out by the SBU, for “non-political” articles – by the police. They take you into a minibus with tiny closed boxes. Upon arrival at the court, they are handcuffed and taken to a cage where they are kept until the hearing begins. If the court is scheduled for 16.00 or 17.00, you will wait 6-7 hours. During breaks and after the end of the trial, you are led back in handcuffs, where you wait for several more hours to be sent “home.” If you want to go to the toilet, there are the same handcuffs behind your back and the guard’s caring hand on your elbow. After arriving at the pre-trial detention center, there are again “boxes” for an hour or two. And only after that you get into the cell. On average, about 8-9 hours of stress.

Conditions of detention (or rather, lack thereof)

On June 4, a trial was supposed to take place to extend the investigation for us, UOJ journalists and Father Sergius Chertilin, for another three months. In the Solomensky court, the waiting cages for prisoners, located along the wall and similar to vertical coffins, turned out to be smaller than a doghouse – approximately 50×50 cm. You could either sit or stand.

There was no longer room for any movement. A wave of claustrophobia “came over me” – I realized that I physically could not be here, a panic attack began. I asked the guard about the opportunity to walk around the room in handcuffs, but he refused. Since I was on the verge of losing consciousness, the guard moved me to the next cell, a longer one, where I could take a couple of steps. I walked around and let it go.

After 6 hours of waiting, we were taken to the meeting room. There, our lawyers argued against the judge and the prosecutor. At the entrance to the hall, my beloved wife “laid in wait” for me and managed to kiss me. When leaving the hall, the guard pushed her harshly. Nevertheless, this small joy was very comforting. Volodya Bobechko's wife tried to shake his hand, but the guard rudely pulled her back. Apparently he considered that his wife’s touching him would create a serious threat to national security.

Violation of fair process rights

The next day, June 5, I was supposed to have an appeal court regarding the suppression. I prepared arguments with which I hoped to convince the judge to release me under house arrest. Imagine my surprise when the convoy took me not to the appeal court, but to the same Solomensky court, which was supposed to consider extending the investigation for another 3 months. As it turned out later, this was a personal instruction from the investigator.

The appellate court judge told my wife that the investigator had forbidden me to be taken there. At the same time, we were not even brought to any meeting. After sitting in the coffin cages for several hours, we were brought to the pre-trial detention center, where we traditionally spent two hours in the “boxes.”

But the most “interesting” thing happened on June 6th. Our “working day” was more than 13 hours. The day before we were not warned about the trial and were taken away without even being given breakfast. Without food, water and the ability to move: first, waiting in the “boxes” of the pre-trial detention center, then sitting in the court cages, and finally, in the “aquarium” at the hearing, until 22.00.

But what was most striking was the attitude of the “servants of the law” – the judge, the prosecutor and the convoy. Despite the fact that we, the UOJ journalists, and Father Sergiy, together with our lawyers, argued with reason to challenge the judge and the prosecutor, these people continued to judge us.

And an investigator and assistants were on duty under the building the entire time of the 6-hour meeting and anxiously looked out the window to see if everything was going according to the script. And the scenario assumed that the judge would satisfy the investigation’s wishes at any cost and on that very day. After all, otherwise they might not have time to hold the next trials, which were supposed to make a decision to keep us behind bars.

The convoy refused to give us water from our relatives. The judge interrupted the lawyers and did not give us the floor when we asked. And this despite the fact that both we and our lawyers completely smashed all the prosecutor’s accusations and razed them to the ground.

The culmination of judicial absurdity

It reached the point of complete absurdity – at 20.00, after the second break (when working hours ended), the lawyers of Fr. Sergius left the room, and it became impossible to continue the trial. When the priest asked to provide him with a free lawyer or to postpone the trial, the judge asked him to also leave the hearing (that is, to sit in the waiting “coffin”).

When Andrei Ovcharenko (who simply physically cannot sit for a long time due to a prolapsed spinal disc) stated that he had severe back pain, the judge invited him to continue the hearing lying on the bench (!). I myself already felt dizzy and weak.

At the same time, in our “aquarium” there was a piece of paper with a statement from the Human Rights Ombudsman Lubinets that no one can be subjected to torture or inhuman treatment that degrades his dignity. I quoted Lubinets’ words to the judge, emphasizing that keeping us in cages for many hours without food and water, dragging out the process until the night, quite fits the definition of the ombudsman, but he just grinned.

And this grin made me think that this parody of justice is an allusion to what awaits each of us, without exception, after death. Air ordeals.

Ukrainian court as an analogue of air trials

Then, after all, every soul will also fall into the clutches of creatures who will only wish you a “life sentence” and try to drag you into the underworld. Then the soul, like us here, will be at the mercy of the “convoy” and, no matter how much it wants, will not be able to gain freedom. There, as here, you can only pray. There's nothing more you can do.

In this life, we are surrounded everywhere by signs and reflections of the existence of another world, into which we will sooner or later find ourselves. You just need to see these signs and understand what they want to tell you. And this lying trial is one of those signs.

Of course, you can be outraged by the actions of all these people – they are truly cynical and lawless. But if you dig a little deeper, they are doing us a favor. Memento mori. And if I feel so bad now, what will it be like there, in the clutches of beings much more powerful than all these judges and prosecutors?

There is only one hope here and there – Christ, the Mother of God and the saints. Not imams of other help, not imams of other hope…

On June 10, 2024, the Solomensky District Court held regular hearings in the case of Orthodox journalists, as well as Archpriest Sergius Chertilin. As a UOJ correspondent reports, the issue of a preventive measure was considered in connection with the extension of the pre-trial investigation for three months.

Despite the fact that the journalists once again categorically rejected all the charges brought against them, confirming with facts that they were unfounded, and despite all the medical orders and conclusions, the judges left them in prison without the right to post bail.

For Valery Stupnitsky, Andrei Ovcharenko and Archpriest Sergius Chertilin, the preventive measure in the form of imprisonment in a pre-trial detention center was extended until August 8. Vladimir Bobechko – until September 12.

Editorial staff of our site received a letter through the lawyer of the Orthodox journalist Valery Stupnitsky, who is being held in a pre-trial detention center. We publish the text written by our colleague in full, without abbreviations and in the author's edition.

Source link