Five lawyers asked that Tsipinova's acquittal be upheld.
The prosecutor's office is demanding that the acquittal of lawyer Diana Tsipinova be overturned. Five colleagues are defending her in the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria, calling for the decision to stand.
As "Caucasian Knot" reported, on December 1, the Urvan District Court, which re-examined Diana Tsipinova's case, again acquitted her. The prosecution had requested a 2.5-year prison sentence for Tsipinova, the Union of Young Lawyers' Telegram channel reported. The prosecutor's office has challenged the second acquittal of Kabardino-Balkaria lawyer Diana Tsipinova, demanding that the case be remanded for a new trial. Tsipinova's defense criticized the agency's position.
On July 7, 2023, the Urvan District Court found no criminal offense in the actions of Diana Tsipinova, the lawyer accused of assaulting a security officer, and acquitted her. The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria upheld the verdict, but the cassation court in Pyatigorsk upheld the prosecutor's office's demands and remanded the case for a new trial. The cassation ruling in Tsipinova's case is clearly incriminating. The court exceeded its authority in assessing the evidence and its credibility, Tsipinova's defense attorney stated.
The Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic today began hearing the appeal against the second acquittal of Diana Tsipinova's lawyer, according to Slovo Zashchitei (Word of Defense).
A police officer named as a victim in Diana Tsipinova's case failed to appear for the hearing.
During the closing arguments, the prosecutor requested that the verdict be overturned and that a special ruling be issued against the Urvan District Court judge who acquitted Diana. Tsipinova is being defended by several of her colleagues: Ruslan Kubanov, Olga Chudentseva, Nver Gasparyan, Rustam Tarkhanov, and Suren Natanov. They all asked the court to uphold the acquittal.
The lawyers claim that the trial court demonstrated impeccable reasoning in delivering the verdict. They added that there is no need to hear witnesses; there are video recordings confirming Tsipinova's innocence, according to the Union of Young Lawyers' Telegram channel, which broadcast the hearing live.
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Three lawyers - Diana Tsipinova, Natalia Magova and Lyudmila Kochesokova - were forcibly pushed out of the building by police. The recording of the incident can be seen in the "Caucasian Knot" video. According to Magova, during the incident, Lyudmila Kochesokova "fell onto a concrete slab." "I hit my head on a metal door [...] Then a scuffle broke out, resulting in various bodily injuries," the lawyer reported.
Diana herself declined to speak at the closing arguments. Diana Tsipinova's final statement is scheduled for February 20.
The Union of Young Lawyers launched the "Letter to Diana" campaign on February 17: lawyers wrote her words of support. In particular, letters from lawyers from the Rostov Region, Krasnodar Krai, Adygea, and Dagestan were published.
As a reminder, in May 2020, Diana Tsipinova was among three lawyers who volunteered to provide legal assistance to her colleague Ratmir Zhilokov after his arrest in Nartkala. They arrived at the police station and were unable to get access to Zhilokov for 40 minutes.
The security forces didn't like the lawyers filming, so they forcibly ejected them from the building. According to investigators, Tsipinova hit the police officers while trying to get to Zhilokov, who was being detained.
The use of force against lawyers in Kabardino-Balkaria and their subsequent criminal prosecution is considered extraordinary by the professional community, although it is not an isolated incident. Violation of the right to legal representation poses a potential threat to every citizen, according to lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot."
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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/420917
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