Krasnodar Territory: defendants cut their wrist veins at verdict announcement

In the evening on May 11, in the village of Poltavskaya, Krasnodar Territory, in the building of the Krasnoarmeiskiy District Court, in the course of an open trial, four defendants cut their wrist veins, when their verdict was announced. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from the defendants' representatives.

Criminal Case No. 959705, on which the verdict was announced, was considered at the Krasnoarmeiskiy District Court by a panel of three judges presided by Judge M. Kilyukhov starting from January 11, 2011. The defendants are four young people aged from 22 to 34 years: Vladimir Petenko, Manvel Saaryan, Temur Gamisoniya and Alexei Alexeev, accused of committing a series of assaults related to robbery and murders (Articles 162 and 105 of the Russian Criminal Code, accordingly).

In the version of the inquiry, the defendants committed, by previous concert, in 2009 and in January 2010, six assaults on households in the Krasnoarmeiskiy, Slavianskiy and Kalinin Districts of the Krasnodar Territory with the aim to steal property. In total, according to investigators, they stole money and jewellery worth more than 1.6 million roubles. Most of the victims were local farmers and entrepreneurs.

Besides, investigators find Petenko, 34, guilty of murdering a local woman-fortune-teller. The motive of the murder, according to the investigation, was "the personal hostility that has arisen on the basis of the professional practice" of the casualty. According to the document, the defendant committed the murder, "being convinced that the fortune-teller had bewitched him, by using psychic methods, to his female partner Zhurbenko."

None of the four defendants plead guilty at the trial: they themselves, their relatives and advocates assert that the criminal case against Petenko, Saaryan, Gamisoniya and Alekseev was completely fabricated.

The state prosecution asked the court to sentence them to the terms from 17 to 20 years is special and high security colonies. Within the court session on May 11, the court scheduled to announce the sentence.

"The session was appointed for 10 a.m.; however, in reality it began only at about 7:30 p.m.," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Marina Dubrovina, an advocate of one of the defendants. "The presiding judge began sentencing. When the terms were read out, the defendants started cutting their veins."

The wife of her client Petenko was the first to notice what was happening; she burst into tears and fainted; the courtroom was full of cries and panic. "Plenty of policemen were brought to the building; it was completely cordoned off," said the lawyer. "Only about midnight we could leave the court. The judge could not fully read out the verdict."

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Alina Zhurbenko, Petenko's female partner, such unexpected behaviour of the young people in the dock was the unfair, in their opinion, criminal prosecution. "At the trial, the state prosecution, having no material evidences, based only on hearsay and investigators' opinions, demanded 17-20 years of special security prison for the guys," she said. "Apparently, having lost hope to find justice, they decided to mutilate themselves."

Under the convoy, the defendants were taken away from the courtroom to some unknown places. At this point we already know that two of them were taken to the Krasnoarmeisk IVS (temporary isolation facility) and two - to the Slaviansk IVS. According to a source from the latter facility, the health condition of their defendants was grave; in the near future they waited for an ambulance.

According to the May 11 verdict of the Krasnoarmeiskiy District Court, which was unread to the end, the defendants were sentenced to the terms ranging from 12 to 17 years of imprisonment in a high security colony.