Alexander Verkhovskiy

ALEXANDER VERKHOVSKIY: I’l try to be brief. Whose motive serves as a criterion for the concept of a political prisoner? I believe that we must add to the definition offered by Valeriy Chalidze the motive for the actions of the very prisoner. This will avoid us having people on the list who are persecuted by the authorities solely for commercial reasons.

In the presumed “Cherkasov-Davidis” dispute, I’m completely on [Alexander] Cherkasov’s side. I believe that the public interest is the basic object of defence for public figures. This is in contrast to a lawyer. A different position may take one very far. By the way, this has nothing to do with who political prisoners are. Incidentally, in my case the word does not spark any positive associations.

In regards to the anti-extremist legislation, a kind of mythology has formed around it. For example, few people are directly imprisoned for making a statement or their membership of an organisation. In this list (he is showing it) there are just a few of them, I believe. Many people are in prison for violent crimes under various ideological motives. And these are also crimes of an extremist nature, according to our legislation. There are hundreds of them (maybe nearly a thousand). And I know few cases where some of them were given too many years, however, I know cases where too light punishment was given.

I agree with Natalia Kholmogorova that it is necessary to introduce a category of those persecuted for political motives. In contrast to political prisoners they are not in jail, but likewise are pressured.

If we say a person has been convicted for the words he said, it is not the same as saying that he is a prisoner of conscience. As far as I know, in all European countries that are signatories of the European Convention, people who incite the public with calls of a certain nature are punished and not considered political prisoners. If I am corrected, let us be clear that we are not talking about justifying the Holocaust, but about public calls of a specific nature.

These include calls for the overthrow of the political system, if this were a real appeal, and not just some gossip. These are calls for murder. The most common are racially motivated murders, but there may be others. We cannot say that we should take and revoke the ill-fated Article 282 or something else. Because if we are in a European sphere, we cannot then just cancel a piece of our legislation that has been hopelessly spoiled but we have to bring it in line with European legislation. It is more or less based on the European Convention. It is clear that this cannot be immediately done.

There is no universal method for determining political prisoners, but if we were to look at the anti-extremist legislation which spawns so many of them, it is necessary to request a review. How exactly is another question, but in line with standards of Western Europe. After changes to the legislation there will be an opportunity and need to review a large number of cases. If these cases were reviewed, many people would be freed, but many others would not be released under the new law.

The authorities have always been uncertain in this regard. They will not change the legislation in relation to certain restrictions on the freedom of speech just like that, so as to please everyone. Someone will remain imprisoned for on one opinion, and on another opinion those very appeals are criminal. The situation is inevitable, and the adoption of such laws has always been selective in each and every country. Unfortunately it is like this; it can’t be that everyone would be punished for such calls the same way. That’s bad, but just the way it is.

I really liked the idea of a council for considering landmark cases, but not for putting together a list; that is cumbersome and impossible. As one of the key issues is evidence in landmark cases, it is this council, composed of qualified people, which may investigate and provide the public with a relatively neutral opinion. Thank you.

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