The High Qualification Board of Judges (HQJC) satisfied the submissions of the head of the ICR, Alexander Bastrykin, who asked for permission to prosecute the former deputy chairman of the Korsakov City Court of the Sakhalin Region, Elena Grechkina, and her colleague from the world court district No. 5, Oksana Kosheleva. The reason was the fact that Mrs. Grechkina, wanting to discourage her subordinate from drinking, according to the TFR, asked the head of the local police to draw up a fictitious report on her detention while intoxicated. The police officer has already been charged with abuse of power.
Consideration of Alexander Bastrykin’s submissions to the VKKS was held via videoconference. At the same time, Elena Grechkina, who was suspected of inciting abuse of office, and Oksana Kosheleva, who is charged with making a knowingly unjust decision, spoke from the hall of the Sakhalin Regional Court. Ms. Grechkina requested that her case be considered behind closed doors, but this was denied.
From the materials heard in the HQCC, it followed that the judges tried to discourage the forensic specialist of the city court from alcohol abuse. She drank during working hours, which caused her conflict with Elena Grechkina.
As a result, the judge, based on the materials of the HQCC, contacted the head of the local police and asked him to draw up a protocol on administrative detention for a subordinate in order to send it to the Magistrate’s Court. The policeman gave the appropriate order. A fictitious record of detention while intoxicated in a public place was drawn up for a court employee. The paper was referred to the Justice of the Peace Kosheleva for an administrative decision. The latter, “knowing for sure” that the police report was drawn up at the request of Mrs. Grechkina, punished the drinker with a three-day administrative arrest, which she served in the temporary detention center.
However, the judges did not know that at that moment the phones of some heads of the local police department were tapped by security officers who were carrying out some operational activities.
As a result, the operatives, having established the facts of incitement by the deputy of the Korsakov City Court of the police chief to violate the official powers of the latter, as well as the issuance of a deliberately unjust decision by Ms. Kosheleva, reported this to the TFR. The head of the Investigative Committee decided to seek criminal prosecution of judges.
In the course of conversations with Elena Grechkina and Oksana Kosheleva at the HQKS, it also turned out that the court employee who had served her arrest did not apply to the prosecutor’s office or the ICR for placing her under administrative arrest, apparently considering the punishment deserved.
In addition, it became known at the meeting that the chief of police and his subordinates, who drew up the protocol, were already on trial in the case of abuse of power.
The decision on the three-day arrest was canceled by the same Korsakov city court on the proposal of the local prosecutor’s office.
The judges in the HQCC pleaded not guilty. Thus, Ms. Grechkina stated that she did not force the chief of police to violate the law when drawing up a protocol on the administrative detention of her subordinate, moreover, no convincing evidence was presented to the HQCJ that the police report was fictitious. And Oksana Kosheleva claimed that she made a decision on administrative arrest on the basis of the document she had, without doubting the authenticity of the police report.
Both judges noted that they do not rule out that the submission against them, filed with the HQCJ, may be a certain form of pressure, although they could not say for what purpose. However, their colleagues from the VKKS did not agree with these considerations, considering them to be a pre-selected form of protection.
As a result, the High Qualifications Board of Judges satisfied the appeal of Alexander Bastrykin, giving permission to bring Elena Grechkina to criminal responsibility under Part 4 of Art. 33 and part 3 p. “c” art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement to abuse of office), and Ms. Kosheleva – under Part 2 of Art. 305 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (making a knowingly unjust decision). By the way, these articles provide for from three to ten years in prison with further deprivation of the right to “hold certain positions or engage in certain activities” for up to three years.