Former secretary of the St. Petersburg court Eyvazov sued 400 thousand rubles for illegal criminal prosecution

Former secretary of the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg, Alexander Eyvazov, obtained compensation for illegal criminal prosecution in the case of slandering a judge, informs joint press service of the courts of the city.

The Petrogradsky District Court exacted 400,000 rubles in compensation for non-pecuniary damage in favor of Eyvazov. The plaintiff asked to pay him 10 times more: 4.295 million rubles. The respondent was the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.

Eyvazov intends to appeal the court decision. He also noted that he plans “despite everything to connect his life with Themis and become a judge in criminal cases.”

In June 2021, the Kolpinsky District Court recovered 250 thousand rubles in favor of Eyvazov from the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Health for violating conditions of detention.

Earlier, a case of obstruction of justice was initiated against Eyvazov (part 3 of article 294 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the case file, in November 2016, as secretary of the Oktyabrsky Court, which considered the case of attempted fraud, “on the basis of personal hostility to the judge” and “wishing to cancel the verdict, he deliberately did not prepare and did not sign part of the protocol of the court session.” Timofei Kungurov, a former municipal deputy from United Russia, was accused in the fraud case.

Eyvazov himself claimed that after his dismissal, he was forced to sign the protocol of the court session retroactively. He refused, and mishandled paperwork nearly led to his fraud conviction being overturned.

For two months of his work in the Oktyabrsky Court, Eyvazov wrote more than 80 complaints against Judge Kerro to various authorities.

While Eyvazov was in a pre-trial detention center, Memorial recognized him as a political prisoner. According to human rights activists, he was persecuted “not only for lawful and legal activities, but also for the performance of civic duty, that is, for justified criticism of the shortcomings of the judicial system.” And the international human rights organization Amnesty International recognized Eyvazov as a prisoner of conscience.

In July 2018, the Kalinin Court of St. Petersburg found Eyvazov guilty and sentenced him to a year and 10 months in a colony of the settlement. The decision was appealed, and in November 2018 the St. Petersburg City Court justified Eyvazov due to the lack of corpus delicti, recognizing his right to rehabilitation.

Eyvazov was also accused of slandering the judge (Article 298.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) Irina Kerro, with whom he worked in the Oktyabrsky Court. Later, this charge was dropped due to the lack of corpus delicti.

In 2020, the ECHR recognized that the Kungurov case was investigated with violations. The court decided to pay him 5250 euros. It was established that the judge of the Oktyabrsky District Court denied the arrested Kungurov the right to visit and talk on the phone with his wife and daughters. Thus, two articles of the Convention on Human Rights were violated.