On November 3rd, 2003, Judge Petr Shtunder of the Moscow City Court began hearings on the case of Igor Sutyagin, who is accused by the Russian Security Service, FSB, of treason. During the first day the court selected the jury. On November 4th the judge gave floor to the prosecutors, who started presenting their case. Almost immediately the judge had to declare a break and adjourn the hearings until November 5th. (10-NOV-03)
The reason for the suspension was that as the prosecutors began addressing the jury, they started reading materials that had nothing to do with the case (for example, charges that were dropped during investigation) or making claims that are not supported by any evidence of the case. The defense anticipated this and tried to exclude these materials and claims from the indictment during preliminary hearings in September, but the judge decided to leave them there. He was assured by the prosecutors that none of the materials that are not directly related to the actual charges will be read in front of the jury. The prosecutors, however, reneged on their promise, prompting the judge to declare a break in the hearings.
The hearings will resume on November 5th. The defense will continue to insist that no materials that are not relevant to the charges should be presented to the jury.—
The Human Rights Watch prepared a brief that considers about the Sutyagin case taken in context of other recent “espionage cases” in Russia: http://hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/russia/index.htm
Photo: www.hro.org
