Won seven cases against the government at the European Court of Human Rights
Text version
0:01
Hi, this is Navalny. Take a look.
0:02
Please look at my
0:04
detention. I’m not
0:29
shouting slogans, I’m not resisting, I’m not
0:36
yelling at the police. And the next morning
0:39
a Russian court sentenced me to 15 days in jail
0:42
for allegedly resisting
0:44
pushing police officers away, shouting
0:46
slogans, and waving my arms around. And of course we
0:50
showed this video recording to the judge, but
0:52
it made absolutely no impression on him.
0:54
The judge said, “Who knows what you’ve got
0:57
there on your screen. Here, look at what I have—
0:59
the police officers’ testimony saying that you
1:01
resisted,”
1:03
pushed them away, and shouted. Why am I telling you all this?
1:06
Because today I
1:09
won against the Russian government in the
1:10
European Court of Human Rights, winning seven cases at once
1:13
concerning detentions and arrests, including
1:16
this very one that I just
1:17
showed you. I proved that all of them were
1:20
unlawful, that the testimony given by
1:22
the police officers was false, and that the person
1:25
who in Russia, for some
1:27
misunderstood reason, is called a judge is simply
1:30
someone handing down verdicts under the so-
1:32
called ‘telephone justice’ (decisions dictated by officials over the phone). He got a call
1:35
from the Kremlin saying, ‘Put this one behind bars,’
1:37
and that’s exactly what he does. On the one hand, this
1:40
is good news: I got what I wanted, I
1:43
proved that I was right, and now the government
1:45
will also have to pay me compensation. It
1:47
only ever cares about money, money, money. On the
1:51
other hand, this is simply
1:53
monstrous, because it shows
1:55
just how rotten and
1:58
twisted the judicial system is. In each
2:01
of these many cases, there was a judge, there was
2:04
a prosecutor, there were police officers who
2:07
detained me and wrote false reports. That’s
2:10
dozens and hundreds of people, and all of them
2:12
simply, without batting an eye, committed
2:14
serious crimes: they gave false
2:17
testimony and prosecuted
2:19
someone they knew was innocent. And they did all of this
2:21
to me. And yet I’m still a fairly
2:23
well-known person, and during
2:25
every detention there are 10 cameras filming me. So
2:28
just think about what kind of
2:30
truth an ordinary person can hope to get in a Russian court
2:32
if no journalists know who he is
2:34
and, all the more so, if he lives
2:36
somewhere out in the regions. This system will
2:38
simply devour him whole, take away his
2:41
property, and ruin his life, and no one will ever
2:43
stand up for him. And even this
2:46
compensation that I’ll be paid—
2:48
it won’t come out of the salary of the judge who
2:51
issued the unlawful ruling. This money will be paid to me
2:53
by the Ministry of Justice, from the state budget. Which means
2:56
that in effect every citizen of Russia—
2:58
every one of you—will have to pay a couple of
3:01
kopeks out of your own pocket, and thereby
3:03
compensate for the crimes of a corrupt and
3:06
venal judicial system. Do we need
3:08
courts like that? No, we do not. That is also
3:12
why I am running in the presidential election,
3:14
because I want to make sure that
3:17
Russia’s judicial system is
3:18
independent and honest, and that every person in
3:22
the regions, in Moscow, anywhere, can
3:24
obtain justice in their local district
3:26
court, without having to run off to
3:29
various
3:30
human rights courts. If you support me,
3:32
I would be very grateful for your
3:34
signature in support of my nomination. The link is in the
3:36
description, and subscribe to our channel.
3:38
Here we tell
3:42
the truth.