From Lenta.ru:
A lawyer has asked the Constitutional Court about the legality of a decision of a sleeping judge
The lawyer from the Amur Oblast has asked the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to make inquiries in connection with a sentence passed by a sleeping judge. The RAPSI news agency reports on this on the 23rd January.
The lawyer, Vladislav Nikitenko, has uploaded a video to the internet in which you can see a man sleeping in judicial robes. Nikitenko claims that this is Evgeny Makhno, a judge at Blagoveschensky Municipal Court. “After this, he passes sentence and sends a man to jail for five years”, the lawyer added to the video’s description.
The man in question is Nikitenko’s client, Andrey Naletov, who was found guilty of fraud. The judge handed down a serious sentence to Naletov, regardless of the fact that he is a father and his live-in girlfriend is suffering a serious form of cancer. In the lawyer’s opinion, the judge may have simply slept through the explanation of [his client’s] circumstances.
Nikitenko believes that Makhno’s actions might fall under the definition given in article 305 of the Russian Federation’s Criminal Code (the imposition of a clearly unjust sentence, verdict, or other act of the court). The lawyer believes that as a minimum, Makhno should be removed from office.
An investigation is already underway at Blagoveschensky court in relation to the incident. However, Nikitenko believes that this investigation should be undertaken by a board of qualified judges. The investigation should lead to a decision by the high court.
A representative of the Amur Oblast court, Sergey Semenov, did not support Makhno in an interview with RAPSI. He stated: “Here, Nikitenko is talking about a single defendant, some Naletov, who received a sentence of 5 years, but there is another defendant who received much more, also under the article relating to fraud.” However, Semenove refused to announce the results of the investigation ahead of time.
Comments from Vkontakte:
Dmitry Filippov:
I hope he gets the sack.
Pavel Rogov:
He was just connecting to the astral plane, where the right decision would come to him!!! 11
Joaquim Rodrigues:
Shitistan.
Sofya Kareva:
Isn’t it against the law to film in a courtroom?
Evgeny Kindryashov: (responding to previous commenter)
Sofya, don’t you mean “to sleep” [in a courtroom]?)
Nikolay Kamyu: (also responding to previous commenter)
Sofya, in Rashka, it’s just dancing in churches that’s against the law. Everything else is fine.
Malik Turbakhainov: (also responding to previous commenter)
Sofya, it’s only against the law to film if there’s a particular court order. Haven’t you ever seen a film of a court?
Shark White:
Why not let the judge sleep, he knows what the verdict is going to be anyway.
Joaquim Rodrigues:
The thing is, he’s the law, and you’re just a mortal.
Vladimir Knyazev:
It happens, this sort of thing. You go out drinking on a work night, don’t sleep well. You sit down with a raging hang-over. Could happen to any one of us, let’s be fair guys.
Maria Vazhenina:
This is Russia
Galina Lambrova:
It’s terrifying to thing that your fate could suddenly depend on our “justice”
Vadim Semdesyatpervyy:
Galina, the horror can come much earlier than court – for example, from a bottle of champagne.
[Note: this commenter is referring to an incident last year in which a suspect was repeatedly violated with a champagne bottle by Kazan police officers.]