Appeal to the citizens and judicial authorities of Russia. Comrades! Friends! Fellow countrymen! Fellow citizens! On December 25, 2007, another act of lawlessness may take place—one that discredits both the country’s judicial system and the very idea of the rule of law. Russian officers of the F.E. Dzerzhinsky Division (a military unit named after Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret police), Sergei Arakcheev and Evgeny Khudyakov, were previously acquitted twice by jury trial. Tomorrow, December 25, the court will begin announcing a third(!) verdict against our servicemen. The innocence of Arakcheev and Khudyakov is obvious. It was convincingly proven in the jury trials. It has been proven just as clearly in the current proceedings as well. Yet the very fact that officers twice acquitted by juries have once again found themselves in the dock—for a crime they did not commit—shows that influential destructive forces within the country have an interest in securing their conviction. We must not allow someone’s narrow local interests to pressure the independence of the judicial system; we must not trample on the Law for the sake of political expediency! Whatever the decision of the North Caucasus Military Court may be, we will continue the struggle for the fate of the Russian officers Sergei Arakcheev and Evgeny Khudyakov until they are fully and finally acquitted. We also demand a review of the court ruling in the Ulman group case and the acquittal of the Russian officers whose only “guilt” was that they honestly carried out the orders of their command. We demand a review of the court ruling in the case of Sergei Lapin and other Russian servicemen convicted for so-called “crimes” in the Chechen Republic while carrying out their service. The innocent must not be convicted! Justice must prevail! The letter is open for signatures.
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