The court appointed a new lawyer for local history expert Yury Dmitriev. Viktor Anufriev, who represents him before the court, became ill and asked to postpone the appeal hearing until September 28. However, the court postponed the hearing to September 22 and appointed another lawyer for Dmitriev, the Memorial Human Rights Center reported.
The Supreme Court of Karelia postponed the hearing on the appeal against the second verdict in the case of Yury Dmitriev, the head of the Karelian Memorial, from September 16 to 22. His lawyer Viktor Anufriev is ill and has to be on self-isolation, but the court did not approve his request to postpone the meeting until September 28. The judge appointed a new lawyer, having given him three days to study the multivolume case file, excluding weekends.
“Yury Dmitriev expressed his discontent with the fact that appointed counsel would defend him, but the court did not change its decision,” Memorial’s website reports.
The court rejected Yury Dmitriev's motions to recuse the judges and the prosecutor.
On July 22, the Petrozavodsk City Court sentenced historian Yury Dmitriev to three and a half years in a maximum security penal colony in the case on sexual violence against his daughter. He was acquitted of lewd act, illegal production of pornography, and illegal possession of weapons. With the consideration of the time spent in a pre-trial detention facility, Dmitriev was supposed to be released in November this year.
The prosecution requested that his sentence be increased to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony.
