The Essentukov City Court began hearing a criminal case against lawyer Dmitry Novikov, who is known for high-profile stories on YouTube. Mr. Novikov, who worked as a judge in Sochi in the early 2000s, made loud statements in his videos about alleged corruption in the judiciary. However, in June 2021, the lawyer himself was arrested on suspicion of involvement in bribery. Dmitry Novikov insists that the criminal case was fabricated in retaliation for his civic activism.
In Essentuki (Stavropol Territory), the city court held the first hearing in a criminal case against Dmitry Novikov, a member of the Chamber of Advocates of the Krasnodar Territory, who is accused of attempted mediation in the transfer of a particularly large bribe (part 3 of article 30 and part 4 of article 291.1 of the Criminal Code RF). As the lawyers participating in the trial told Kommersant, the prosecutor read out the indictment, and then Dmitry Novikov and his defenders (today there were six of them) expressed their attitude to the prosecution, declaring the defendant’s innocence.
Kommersant previously reported that a criminal case against Dmitry Novikov and his driver Vladimir Kalugin was initiated in June 2021 at the request of the defendant lawyer Yaroslav Makagonov. Two weeks earlier, an employee of the private security company Makagonov opened fire in the parking lot of the Krasnodar residential complex “Admiral”, injuring a security guard with a traumatic pistol. After the incident, a case of hooliganism with the use of weapons was initiated, Yaroslav Makagonov fled from the investigation, but nevertheless, he soon found an opportunity to contact lawyer Dmitry Novikov and asked him to enter the case as a defender.
According to the prosecution, Dmitry Novikov asked the client for 2 million rubles, explaining that the funds were needed to be transferred to the investigator and the judge for reclassifying the case, as well as for choosing a preventive measure not related to deprivation of liberty.
Yaroslav Makagonov made an appointment to transfer money at the station square in Novorossiysk, on June 1, 2021, the driver Vladimir Kalugin, who arrived there, was detained, a few days later Dmitry Novikov himself was arrested in Moscow.
The current hearing in the Essentuki city court is already the second attempt to consider the case on charges of corruption against Dmitry Novikov. In November last year, the court returned the case to the prosecutor to eliminate flaws in the indictment.
According to lawyer Roman Novikov (son of Dmitry Novikov), the revision of the indictment did not eliminate the violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure. “The document still does not specify the method of committing the crime, the place and time, does not list the actions of Dmitry Novikov, indicating his intention to transfer the bribe,” Novikov Jr. explained. Also, the indictment lacks information about the bribe taker, his powers and whether he could really influence the outcome of the criminal case against Yaroslav Makagonov, defender Oleg Reshetnyak specified.
In general, the defense of Dmitry Novikov proceeds from the fact that a provocation was committed against the defendant: the funds transferred by Yaroslav Makagonov, according to the defense, were a lawyer’s fee. The criminal case against Vladimir Kalugin was suspended due to the deterioration of his health.
Kommersant has repeatedly written about the activities of Dmitry Novikov, who until 2003 was a judge of the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi, in 2010 he was prosecuted for malfeasance, from that moment the ex-judge began a campaign to expose former colleagues. Dmitry Novikov’s stories posted on YouTube gained tens of thousands of views. In 2019, he received the status of a lawyer and continued to publish scandalous videos. After his arrest in 2021, Dmitry Novikov has repeatedly stated that law enforcement agencies and the judicial system are taking revenge on him.