21:00, 17 June 2011

Dmitry Novikov restored in his judge status

On June 17, Dmitry Novikov, earlier accused of fraud and kept in custody for about a year, has been restored in the status of a judge at a sitting of the Disciplinary Judicial Bench in Moscow.

On June 20, Dmitry Novikov is to resume his duties in the court of the Khosta District of Sochi.

Mr Novikov had worked at the Khosta District Court for eight years – from 2000 to 2008, when he voluntarily resigned. In April 2010, on presentation of the FSB, which was then inquiring into Novikov's abuse of power, the qualification collegium deprived him of the status of a judge and changed the wording of his 2008 retirement from voluntary resignation into dismissal because of deprivation of the status of a judge.

The deprivation decision in relation to Novikov was passed on April 7, 2010; on that very day he was arrested and placed into SIZO (pre-trial prison). From there, Novikov appealed against the decision of the territorial collegium at the Supreme Court of Russia. However, his complaint was forwarded back to Krasnodar, where judge Liudmila Sibyatullova was requested to consider it.

Author: Svetlana Kravchenko

Source: CK correspondent