Defendants offer to release from cells
The Federation Council has drafted a law on the dismantling of walling in court.
A bill prohibiting the defendants placed inside the walling in the courtroom, has been developed and “passes the necessary approvals”, said the head of Committee of the Federation Council (FC) on constitutional legislation Andrey Klishas. The speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said earlier that the defendants, with the exception of the “most dangerous criminals” should be at the table next to the lawyer, not in cages or glass structures. The European court of human rights has repeatedly recognized that the content of “human dignity”.
The issue of banning walling in the halls of the court at the meeting of the Council today raised the speaker of the house Valentina Matvienko. In her view, the cells need to “withdraw from the premises, which deals with judicial proceedings”: “to Keep in a cage, people under television cameras, still not charged with anything, it’s inhumane, unworthy, we person break his life.” The Russian defendants to “sit at the table next to his lawyer,” “like in the European courts”.
“The exception should be only for the most dangerous criminals. Let’s get to the end of the year will solve this problem”, — said Mrs. Matvienko.
Supreme court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev has supported the proposal, noting that even during Soviet times, in the halls of the courts was not “no cages, no glass boxes”, “But then worked as a professional escort service — cases, escapes from the courtroom almost was not”.
Valentina Matvienko said that the escort service “it is necessary either to close or to make her normal, professional, appropriate to the tasks that it faces”.
“Find the correct decision, as is done in the civilized world. We are a civilized, democratic state”, — said the speaker of the Federation Council.
Andrey Klishas said that the Committee has already developed a bill to ban the defendants inside the premises of walling in the courtroom. Dismounting, he said, will require increased security in the courts. The project is now “undergoing the necessary approvals,” competent authorities “sent the appropriate requests.”
The Senator said that in the Soviet period metal cages in courtrooms is not installed, and was first established in 1992 during the trial of serial killer Andrei Chikatilo “in order to prevent lynching of them by relatives of the victims.”
Since the cells “appeared in almost all the halls of the court, where a criminal case.” Since 2004 part of the cells was replaced with “translucent modular cockpit”, but though the accused is not in a cage, “still physically and psychologically isolated from the of the hearing” and limited contact with his lawyer, said Mr. Klishas.
Recall that the European court of human rights has repeatedly acknowledged the contents of the defendants in metal or glass cages “degrading” (e.g., “Svinarenko and Slyadnev V. Russia”, “Vorontsov and others versus Russia”). Against this practice repeatedly there was also the head of the presidential Council on human rights Mikhail Fedotov, and representatives of the legal community. In particular, they pointed out that the responsibility to equip the courts of a particular equipment is not enshrined in law and “all is regulated by departmental normative acts, which are not officially published.”