Witness fails to identify defendant at trial on Manege Square riots

At the court session, where the riots in Manege Square in Moscow in 2011 are considered, the witness Kambikov confirmed that defendant Berezyuk hit a policeman; however, he failed to identify the organizers of the riots among the defendants. Other victims also failed to identify the defendants.

Today, the session began with an almost hourly delay; it is attended by 13 victims, reporters and numerous members of "The Other Russia", whose activists are among the defendants. The defendants themselves look calm.

In the course of presenting evidences of defendants' guilt, the public prosecution has demonstrated testimonies of a witness and victims. The witness Albert Kambikov has confirmed that the defendant Igor Berezyuk hit the policeman Ilya Naumov on his head. According to Kambikov, the crowd behaved aggressively; however, he failed to identify the organizers of the riots among the defendants.

Several victims, who also spoke in the court today, also failed to recognize the people, who were in Manege Square, among the defendants.

The defence lawyers drew the court's attention to the fact that Alexander Ivanov, Deputy Commander of the OMON (riot police) regiment, who was present in the courtroom, prompted answers to the questions of the parties of the litigation to the witness and victims, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.