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Defendant in Sviridov murder case asks for leniency

The jury will pass a verdict on October 19

MOSCOW, October 18 (Itar-Tass) —— Aslan Cherkesov, a defendant in the murder case of a Spartak football fan Yegor Sviridov asked the jury for a lenient and unbiased verdict in the Moscow City Court during the criminal deliberations on Tuesday.

“I confess in the crime. I took out the pistol and was shooting, because I was attacked and I did not have another choice, I was cornered, but I did not want death for anyone,” he said in the last statement for the jury.

Meanwhile, he noted that he is ready to be responsible for his offences, except for those, which he did not commit.

“I am always ready to be responsible for my offences, but not for those that I did not commit. Gasparyan, who swayed a bottle, like Chapayev with a saber, did not confess in this after all,” Cherkesov noted.

“I appealed the court of jury, because I would like people to condemn me, I believe with all my heart in your justice and fairness. I did not see justice during the investigation, but came to the court for justice. I ask you for a lenient and unbiased verdict,” the defendant concluded.

Another defendant Nariman Ismailov also made the statement in the court. He stated that during the trial “the prosecutor considered us as aggressive beasts, criminals, but we proved it not to be so.”

“I personally caused the light health damage to this man (the injured party), protecting the honour of my mother, but they are seeking to attribute to me that all this was done in a preliminary conspiracy. I ask you (the jury) to pass a fair verdict,” he said in the court.

Another two defendants supported a request for a fair verdict in the court, but the other defendants refused from the last statement.

The jury will pass a verdict on October 19. Presiding judge Andrei Rasnovsky will put up for debates several questions, which the jurors should answer. After that he will address to the penal and the jury will resign for consultations on a verdict.

The lawyers of the defendants also took the floor in the Moscow City Court on Tuesday. All the lawyers asked the jury for a lawful and fair verdict, but did not ask for acquittal of their clients.

Meanwhile, all the lawyers regretted about Sviridov’s murder, but found it important that the jury could have found the role of each defendant in the trial.

“I support an injured party that the role of each defendant should be investigated, because the fate of each defendant is about to be determined,” Chechulin, a lawyer of a defendant said.

“Take notice that Russian citizens are in the dock. Certainly, the tragedy that broke out is irreversible for all people involved in it. But this tragedy should not cause groundless accusations against a person in the crime he did not commit,” he pointed out.

The lawyer agreed that Cherkesov caused the bodily damage, but noted that the damage was not premeditated.

Nariman Ismailov’s lawyer Valentina Semina noted in the court that her client does not deny the fact that he was the first to hit the injured party in the face. However, the prosecutor believes that the reason over which he engaged in the fight (uncensored words against his mother) was minor, but it is not true, the lawyer noted. The attitude to these dirty words is different and depends from the upbringing, as someone is impartial to the dirty words with the word mother and someone does not accept it, the lawyer remarked. Meanwhile, Semina emphasized that both sides were engaged in the fight and several witnesses testified about this fact.

“Therefore, if it is an act of hooliganism committed by the defendants, it is the same on the part of the injured parties,” Semina noted.

“I believe that you will deal with this situation honestly, with all responsibility and fairness, and please remember that the guys in custody are someone’s children as well,” the lawyer concluded.

The lawyer of another defendant Khasan Ibragimov also said to the jury that the speech of the prosecutors scheduled on Monday was doubtlessly bright and emotional, but absolutely unconvincing.

“I ask to be critical over the testimony of the witnesses, injured parties and to examine it in combination with other testimony,” the lawyer said, noting that Ibragimov and other defendants are accused of the crimes they did not commit.

“At the end of my speech I ask you to take a decision up to your deep convictions under the guidance of the law and conscience,” the lawyer concluded.

For his part, Aslan Cherkesov’s lawyer Dmitry Pankov told the jury that the use of weapons in the brawl was the self-defence.

He recalled that Cherkesov was shooting from the shoulder with the traumatic pistol grip up and only in the attackers. The lawyer stressed that being in the heat of the brawl, which sparked up just at 2-3 square meters, “whether Cherkesov could assess the situation correctly?!”

“Whether Yegor Sviridov’s murder was premeditated. Certainly it was not so. This is the premeditated murder when a person has an object, with which he will commit murder definitely and is aware that the person will die, but Cherkesov had neither time nor desire for this,” Pankov noted. He also noted that Cherkesov’s actions did not envisage an act of hooliganism, but agreed that Cherkesov inflicted bodily injuries, which was not deliberate.

For his part, the prosecutors ask the jury for a guilty verdict. The public prosecutor insists that the crime was committed under a preliminary conspiracy.

Six people are in the dock. A Nalchik resident Aslan Cherkesov, 27, is charged with murder, an attempt at murder, a deliberate light bodily damage, robbery and hooliganism. Other defendants, namely Dagestan residents Akai Akayev, 20, Artur Arsibiyev, 20, and Nariman Ismailov, 20, as well as Ramazan Utarbiyev, 21, and Khasan Ibragimov, 19, are accused of hooliganism and the deliberate light bodily damage.

The detectives found out that overnight to December 6, 2010, the drunken defendants went up to a group of Muscovites, who were waiting for a taxi, at a bus stop on the Kronshtadtsky Boulevard. “Abusing a slight reason for the fight the accomplices attacked the young people and beat them up,” a source in the Prosecutor General’s Office said. Meanwhile, Cherkesov has made two shots from a traumatic pistol Streamer-2014 at two people, “inflicting a slight bodily damage to them,” and then has made two shots in Sviridov. The latter died of wounds. Then, the public prosecutor found that Cherkesov has made six more gunshots at another injured party, stole his bag, and the attackers escaped from the crime scene.

After the Sviridov murder massive disorders broke out on the Manezh Square last December. The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow is trying the criminal case over massive disorders.

The Moscow City Court launched the trial behind closed doors over the murder of another Spartak fan Yuri Volkov in July 2010.