Court refused to return the case of ex-deputy mayor of Novocherkassk to prosecutor

The case of the former deputy mayor of Novocherkassk Vladislav Zhuravlyov will not be returned to the prosecutor for correction, because the court found no violations of the law in it.

Zhuravlyov is accused of negative statements addressed to national Diasporas of the region at the meeting of Cossacks of the village of Srednyaya on June 16, 2010. The former deputy mayor says that he never made such statements.

On March 21, his lawyer Leonid Novikov filed a motion for return of the case to the prosecutor. According to the defence, the 11 witnesses who gave evidence on the case were not present at the meeting of Cossacks; besides, important defence witnesses were not presented at the trial.

The ruling adopted by Nikolai Egorov, a judge of the Novocherkassk City Court, says that all the witnesses present in the list to be called to the court, and the witnesses invited to the sessions, will be questioned; and their testimonies will be assessed in the final judgment.

It is also stated that since the three witnesses mentioned in the motion of the advocate have not yet been questioned by the court, the latter cannot assess their testimonies.