Sever Real report by Anna Yarovaya and Yelena Vladykina
The High Court of Karelia has annulled the verdict passed earlier on Yury DMITRIEV by the Petrozavodsk City Court and in place of three years and six months has sentenced him to 13 years imprisonment.
Today the High Court of Karelia began its third hearing of the appeals made by Defence and Prosecution following the 22 July verdict in the trial of Yury DMITRIEV. [Previous hearings were held on 16 and 22 September.] At this hearing experts appointed by the court will present a new analysis of the photographs in the case.
It is unusual for a court of the second instance to take so long over its deliberations. More often it reaches a decision after a single sitting.
Continue readingAt the High Court hearing on 22 September in Petrozavodsk, Judge Alla Rats requested another expert assessment of the photographs on Yury DMITRIEV’s home computer that formed the pretext for his arrest on 13 December 2016.
Continue readingHalya Coynash
A verdict is due on Thursday, 5 April 2018, in the trial of YURY DMITRIEV, world-renowned Russian historian and head of the Karelia branch of the Memorial Society.
A new assessment of the photographs of YURY DMITRIEV’s foster daughter was scheduled by the court: the photos constitute the main evidence against the head of the Memorial Society in Karelia. Yesterday, during the interval in the proceedings at this famous case, Dmitriev’s defence attorney VICTOR ANUFRIEV announced to waiting journalists that the new forensic experts had found no element of pornography in the photos. The defence had not yet had a chance to examine in detail the conclusions of the new experts, said Anufriev, adding that not one of the photographs of the child forming part of the prosecution case had been recognised as pornographic. “Furthermore, the [new] expert assessment confirmed that there had been no sexual motive in the preparation of the photographs,” added Anufriev, “only a concern to monitor the child’s health.”
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The Dmitriev Affair 