Alexei Malobrodsky, former Serebrennikov managing director, speaks out in court
Alexei Malobrodsky, Kirill Serebrennikov's jailed former managing director, spoke out in a court hearing September 6 where it was decided to continue to hold him in a pretrial detention cell. Here is a translation of what he reportedly said:
I proceed on the assumption that honor, your honor, has a place in court, has a place and some significance. I also proceed on the assumption that all participants of this gathering must, without exception, be guided by the law and are equally responsible for their own words and deeds. If this is true, then is it not time to demand that the opposite side, the investigation, once and for all cease operating with vague, meaningless, and overblown statements, and begin operating with facts and real arguments? How much longer will you indulge these unscrupulous attempts to fabricate false accusations against me and trample on my civil rights! While time and again my defense at each of these gatherings proves with irrefutable evidence and flawless logic the falsity of the accusation and the failure of arguments in favor of my detention, the investigation - I would call it an "organized group of investigators" - constantly sneers publicly at the law, confuses the wording of the prosecution, confuses the dates, manipulates the numbers and details of the criminal cases being initiated, and commits procedural errors. It engages in lies and intimidation. For two and a half months, virtually no investigative actions have taken place. The investigator's statement that I had multiple opportunities to testify was false. Maybe he means what happened on July 25 in the building of the Investigative Committee on Technical Lane, 2, to which I was brought a week after the particulars of this charge were taken into account by the court, and a week after which I was brought in alone, handcuffed, bound to bailiffs, to be acquainted with this charge without the opportunity, contrary to the law, to avail myself of my lawyer's advice. I refused. I know that investigative actions are planned in the building of the Investigative Committee for September 8. I declare, here in court: I will not participate in any investigative actions in handcuffs. Itin's lawyer spoke about the rights of his client, about the observance of norms to protect his health, threats to his life and so on. There are still some rights left. I have a right to my human dignity, the right to the presumption of innocence, the right to protection. All these rights are violated in one fell swoop, at one stroke by such investigative actions. Your Honor, I repeat and continue to repeat: I am prepared to give all the information I have, I am prepared to give truthful testimony, I am ready to answer specific questions of the investigation. I shall not answer such proposals as, "Confess to something," or "Show something about our last charge," which consists entirely of the listing of two dozen transactions and half a dozen transactions of subsidies for Seventh Studio. I do not understand conversations of such a sort. It has long been time to move on to specific issues. I have not been presented with a single instance of specific evidence, but for the ridiculous evidence of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I do not understand what can be discussed with the investigation in such conditions.
