After a case of Vladimir Makarov, who was falsely convicted of raping his 7-year old daughter, the society started to keep an attentive eye on unfair jail sentences. Just recently the internet was shocked with a new scandal: Moscow regional court has convicted 19-year old Sergei Melnikov of raping a girl. Despite obvious proofs of non-guilty, the young man was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment. All prosecution was based only on victim’s testimony, while policemen were witnesses in the case, though they haven’t been eyewitnesses of the crime.
The victim and the accused know each other well; moreover they used to date, and have even had intimate relations, but not long before the act of crime they parted. Still the investigation insisted on the fact of rape, rejecting all arguments that the charges were just a sort of revenge and possibly a mean to get the boyfriend back. And really there are enough such arguments: neither biological nor DNA testing prove the fact of sexual intercourse. None of 10 witnesses examined by the court claimed being an eyewitness; while within the night the accused and the victim were seen two times, spaced a few hours apart, in the street: young people communicated in a usual calm manner.
Personal characteristics of the victim are of great interest here. Kristina Salonetskaya failed to complete secondary education, but she has managed to be registered in the commission on juvenile delinquency, and has born administrative charges for drinking alcohol. Her acquaintances describe her as irresponsible and inclined to lie. According to her testimony, the accused has raped her twice (while initially she told about only one act of violence); besides, after the first rape she got back to the scene of crime on her own will. Evidently, her behavior seems strange, especially taking into account that according to her own words, the victim cried all the time, while the “rapist” shouted at her and held her tight. Yet the girl has found an explanation of her testimony: she wanted to hear excuses…So, all that was said above, became a basis for the verdict.
Having learnt about the legal action, Melnikov didn’t hide but came to the local police department in order to clear up the situation. The investigation dragged on: an ordinary rape case has been investigated for more than one year, and investigators hesitated to bring it to court as far as they failed to gather a necessary number of evidences. The case had 5 investigators replacing each other.
Finally, the court has sentenced the young man to 8 years of imprisonment. A cassational appeal was filed to the Supreme Court.
Two years ago President Dmitry Medvedev announced that only about 1% of criminal cases got acquitted in Russia. It means that not guilty but sentenced people have nothing to hope for! Please tell Russian legal authorities that citizens of RF do have a right for fair court!
Thank you all for caring!
