 | № 188 (3130) | 29.11.2005 |
And who are the judges?
Under examination are the guardians of Themis
The General Office of Public Prosecutor brought an action against the ex-judge of Novo-Savinovskiy district`s court of the city of Kazan Emil Ganeev. It is already the second case of an action against ex-judges in the republic: in the Soviet district`s court starts the trial soon about the case of Saidel Shakirov - the retired judge of the Supreme Court of the TASSR and ex-director of the branch of the Russian Academy of Justice.
Both of these cases are stale: the people on trial had been asserting their judicial immunity for a long time since the proceedings against judges can only be instituted after their abdication according to the law "About the status of judges" and even then only with the sanction of the General Office of Public Prosecutor.
The Qualification chamber deprived Emil Ganeev of his rights already at the end of the year 2001 "in view of performing deeds, discrediting the honour and dignity of a judge and undermining authority`s prestige". The president of the Novo-Savinovo`s district`s court discovered the "werewolf in the long robe" after the Supreme Court of Republic of Tatarstan reversed all of 43 judgments about the civil complaints about actions of the customs. They were all given under the chairmanship of Ganeev. The customs refused to give some citizens the papers for buying expensive cars of foreign production in Belarus. And Ganeev gave the complainants the go-ahead. But under the repeated consideration of these complainments it turned out, that the "declarants" had never bought any cars, never went to law to complain about the customs, and the complaints themselves were considered by the judge in absentia. And some of this 43 "declarants" do not even live in the district assigned to Ganeev, and all the court records were just photocopied. Moreover judge`s decisions, omitting the chancellery, were just handed to the customers.
The Tatar Transport Office of Public Prosecutor became interested in the Novo-Savinovskiy district`s court president`s decision concerning its subordinate. Illegal exemption from fees of some people automatically enriched them at the minimum in six-digit sum. So this people`s interest in the positive court decision is clear. And what is the interest of the judge, who played at give-away with them? The investigation had to find answers for this and many other questions. Ganeev`s commission was not signed by the President of Russia by that time. And the Tatar Supreme Court president Gennadiy Baranov started the procedure of withdrawing the documents of the judge at fault there and then. And through hearsay it was able to withdraw them literally at the last moment - seemingly from the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation president`s map.
Nevertheless, asserting the status of the judge, Ganeev reached the Supreme Qualification chamber of the Russian Federation. But it kept the decision of the Qualification chamber of Tatarstan in force. And only after that the Novo-Savinovo district`s court ex-judge`s case was signed by the general public prosecutor. And yesterday the resolution about the initiation of proceedings about Emil Ganeev according to the article "the wittingly unjust adjudgement" was faxed to the Office of Public Prosecutor of Tatarstan. Admittedly, Galeev is not officially arraigned yet. But if it comes to a trial, he faces the prospect of 4 years custodial coercion.
Swindle and instigation to bribe are criminated to the retired judge of the Supreme Court of TASSR Saidel Shakirov. In February in 2003 he was arrested by the Department of Control over the economic crimes as he was leaving the private office of the general director of the firm "Ercom-plus". 550 000 rouble and 15 000 US dollar were found on him. Of course, all the notes were marked beforehand. In the words of the firm`s director, Shakirov demanded the money as the kickback for the Arbitrage judge, who answered to a six million claim of the businessman. In the version of the investigation, Shakirov was going to leave the money by himself. But he explained that the businessman had repaid his debt with one part of the money, and the other part was borrowed by Shakirov himself.
Nevertheless institute proceedings against director of the brunch of the Russian Academy of Justice were taken. But Vakhitov district`s court, after Shakirov`s appeal, disaffirmed the resolution about initiation of proceedings referring to that fact, that he is a judge in retirement and so, has the judicial immunity. Protests and representations of the Tatarstan`s public prosecutor sent to the Supreme Court of Tatarstan and then to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not shaken the determination of Tatarstan`s Justice to save esprit de corps. Even the decision of the presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which complied with a request of the General Office of Public Prosecutor and cancelled the decision of the Vakhitov district`s court: in October last year the Supreme Court of Tatarstan decided to decline the initiation of proceedings in Shakirov`s case.
But the Tatarstans Office of Public Prosecutor did not give up. In the spring this year the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation finally recognized that the initiation of proceedings in the ex-judge`s case is legal. In June the Qualification chamber of Tatarstan deprived Shakirov of his status of the judge in retirement and at the beginning of November Shakirov`s case was sent to Soviet district`s court. Admittedly, the judge who got Shakirovs case is on leave. So the trial will probably start only next year.
Author: Elena Melnik
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