Sochi: Olga Martynyuk sentenced to one year in settlement-colony for beating court marshal

The Khosta District Court of Sochi has sentenced Olga Martynyuk, a teacher of world literature, to one year of imprisonment in a penal settlement-colony for beating a court marshal. Olga Martynyuk and her advocate do not agree with the sentence, and they intend to file a complaint against the verdict within 10 days.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 4, the Khosta District Court of Sochi sentenced Olga Martynyuk and her daughter Oksana Toropova to one year in a penal colony on charges of assaulting a bailiff. The Court of Appeal of the Regional Court has returned the case for reconsideration by the different panel of judges. On August 14, the District Court sentenced Oksana Toropova to 1.5 years of conditional imprisonment. The woman has filed an appeal against the new sentence.

"I believe the Court's verdict has slandered me, since my guilt is not proven and it cannot be based on false testimonies. And the Court has not doubted them only because all persons who have testified against me are the persons dependent on the Court," Olga Martynyuk commented on the trial to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Advocate Alexander Popkov believes that the verdict is groundless, since the Court has failed to find out how the woman, who was sitting on a chair in a judge's office, could "sit and beat the court marshal" at the same time. "Such contradictions in the events and actions give reason to doubt the validity of the verdict announced," the advocate has stated. Besides, he has noted that Olga Martynyuk "bears more than a dozen of bruises on her body, while the injured court marshal got only one bruise."

Meanwhile, the defender has emphasized that during the trial, the Court "has failed to question the major participant of the conflict Judge Olga Maslakova, in whose office the incident occurred."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.