30.05.2006 judge’s intellect

Not long ago the city court of Karelian republic in Petrozavodsk made a decision in favour of M.Efimov and D.Loschinin who had taken part in the action for revocation of calling-up, resignation of the Minister of Defense S.Ivanov and struggle against crimes in the army. The court has decreed to cancel the decision of Justice of the Peace and to exempt the activists of Karelian department of the “Youth remedial group” from administrative liability, to release them from the fine and to withdraw the action because of its insignificance.
We’d like to remind of the incident. On the 31st of March during the picket near the building of the government of Karelian Republic two participants were arrested for using megaphone and were escorted to the local police station. The same day Justice of the Peace decided to impose a fine at the rate of 1500 rubles on both of them. This decision has been appealed in the court of first instance.
On that day the behavior of militiamen resembled the times of the Soviet Union when all the demonstrations of dissidents have always been broken up according to the law and by the order. The city court’s decision has not been dictated by the letter of an abstract law that was created with the purpose of confining civil liberties and legalizing despotism of the law machinery but it has been based on the judge’s intellect, conscience and confidence in the young human rights activists’ truth.