Novikov’s defenders consider the verdict of his arrest unlawful

The judgment of Krasnodar regional court of taking retired judge of Khosta district of Sochi Dmitry Novikov into custody is unlawful and unjustified, the human rights activists and lawyers from different regions of the country who were presents at the trial consider.

On February, 16, upon a motion of Chairman of Committee of Inquiry of the Russian Federation (CI RF) Alexander Bastrykin, a judgment of arrest of the retired judge Dmitry Novikov was passed. On October, 18, 2011, a charge of abuse of authority and bribery was brought against him.

About fifty persons came to the session where the question of preventive punishment to Dmitry Novikov was under consideration. There were not enough seats in the courtroom for many of them and they had to wait for the verdict in the corridor, the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent reports.

Human rights activists and lawyers from Amur region, Moscow, Novorossiysk and other cities came to support Novikov. Seven of them were officially allowed to take part in the trial.

One of Dmitry Nivikov’s supports was ex-major of militia from Novorossiysk Alexey Dymovsky who had exposed facts of malusage in interior affairs bodies. He called the trial “lynch law” and declared that “it is not Novikov who should be isolated from society but those who try and prosecute him”.

Dmitry Novikov’s defenders decided to appeal against the verdict of the regional court of the defendant’s arrest.