28 Hostages of the Kremlyn

28 HOSTAGES OF THE KREMLIN
| | The court trial
During the investigation, the case of Yatsenko was reclassified from ‘smuggling of goods’ to
‘possession of explosives’, which is punishable by 4 years’ imprisonment.
From the Kursk detention centre, he was transferred to the city of Belgorod, where at the
beginning of March 2015, the court of first instance sentenced him to 2 years’ imprisonment
in a penal settlement. After Counsel Piotr Zaikin, previously involved in the defence of Mariya
Alyokhina, a member of ‘Pussy Riot’, joined the case, an appeal was filed to the regional court
of Belgorod. Having considered the appeal, the court decided to reduce the punishment to 9
months and release the prisoner who had already served the prison term.
At the first meeting, Piotr Zaikin emphasised the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court in the examination
of similar cases, according to which, in such cases, citizens of the Russian Federation
were not subjected to punishment in connection with the decriminalisation of the criminal article.
This was the basis for the assertion that, in the case of the Ukrainian Yuriy Yatsenko, the
sentence was politically motivated. 71
All the above facts leave no doubt as to the complete innocence of the young people. However,
a positive result was obtained not so much due to the observation of the rule of law, but rather
thanks to bold actions of the accused and the professionalism of the defence. According to Yuriy
Yatsenko, resistance to torture, denial of self-incrimination or cooperation with the investigative
bodies made his detention absolutely useless for the purposes of propaganda and, thus, an
unnecessarily financial burden. The story has not gained much publicity within Russia and, consequently,
for the judiciary and law enforcement agencies it was not critical; which contributed
to the decision to impose lenient sentences, mitigated also by the highly professional services
provided by the defence.
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This story serves to illustrate once again that the information war, being waged by Russia,
does not discount even the most cruel methods and is able to create not only fictional television
narratives, but also cause real suffering to innocent people.
71 Segodnya [‘Today’] / The controversial trial of the Lviv student is underway in Russia — www.segodnya.
ua/regions/lvov/Kak-v-Rossii-prohodit-skandalnyy-sud-nad-lvovskim-studentom.html