The final statement
‘And none of this is about the law. Nor is it about the truth. And in this sense, of course, it is much easier for me, because in 20 months I have not had to lie once. And telling the truth is easy and pleasant. Ultimately, truth and justice always prevail.’
Your Honor, it seems that everything that could be said has already been said. Our defense attorneys have talked about all the procedural errors, the legal issues, and so on.
I will return to the beginning. To the essence. We have been sentenced to six years for a work of art. For creativity. For art. If I am not mistaken, I am the first writer to be convicted for a work of art since 1965-but in that case, there were complaints about the method of distribution. Apparently, no one has been convicted for a play since the 1930s.
I took the sequence of events from a real court sentence. The person convicted there received four and a half years. For what I wrote about her, I was given six.
It is implied that imprisonment should make a person reconsider, reform, and realize something. And for almost 20 months now, I have been thinking, what exactly should I realize? That under no circumstances should one feel sorry for such deceived fools who have ruined their lives? I can’t. Pity is a normal Christian feeling. And it does not cancel out punishment. Or perhaps I should realize that one should never write anything about people convicted of terrorism? Wait, but we checked, and there are still stories and documentaries about the ‘Karaulova case’ on federal TV channel websites. In the Channel One film, for example, the heroine says almost word for word in her interview everything that is in my play.
So, does that mean that some people are not allowed to write about such cases, while others are? Then, perhaps, there should first be some rules-and only then punishment for violating them? So what am I supposed to realize? What am I guilty of?
Prosecutor Denisova said this to us in court: you do not admit guilt, therefore six years. What was I supposed to admit-that I am a supporter of radical Islam, as was written in our charges? No, sorry, I am a Christian. And I would not admit to that, even if my release were guaranteed. Admit that when I wrote the play, I had motives to justify terrorism? Well, that’s not true! You see, my motives are documented. Probably in a few cases is this the case. And we provided all these documents right away. I spoke about my motives in 2019 during discussions of the play with the audience, and I spoke about them in interviews. I say the same thing everywhere: in this play, I tried to explore the motives of such women, warn about recruitment methods, and show the real sentences that follow such behavior. So what exactly do I need to confess to?
But one thing I realized during this time. In order to imprison the playwright and director, everyone had to make an effort. It was necessary to order a forensic examination from a place where the result would be guaranteed-the FSB center. Probably, no one in Moscow would have written that I justify terrorism because my text includes instructions on how to tie a scarf. The expert from Yekaterinburg has no other explanations; everything else there is taken from the internet. In order to confirm the charges in the prosecutor’s office, it was necessary to make up this absurd nonsense about us being Islamists. Fortunately, it turned out to be too fantastic even for the court.
They had to find a fake witness who would say that we agreed on something at a buffet that didn’t exist. And in general, they had to compromise their morals. The Ministry of Justice issued us a document stating that destructive expertise does not exist. But it is in our verdict. And the big prosecutor doesn’t see any violations. Probably, all this is not easy. And unpleasant.
And all this is not about the law. And not about the truth. And in this sense, of course, it is much easier for me, because in 20 months I have not had to lie once. And telling the truth is easy and pleasant. And in the end, truth and justice always prevail.
Your Honor, I request that the verdict of the Second Western District Military Court be overturned.
Appeal Military Court, Vlasikha, Russia
25 December 2024
Source: Novaya Gazeta
More information about the case: Memorial
Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS