"The Supreme Court corrected mistakes": a resident of Donetsk who committed a crime due to poverty, the sentence was commuted

The Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation commuted the sentence to Vitaly Dyukarev, a resident of the city of Donetsk, Rostov Region, who tried to smuggle cigarettes.

At the beginning of 2020, he received three years in prison, but in the end, the lawyer managed to achieve a mitigation of the sentence and replace the real term with a suspended sentence.

Vitaly Dyukarev was detained while trying to illegally transport several boxes of cigarettes to Russia from the territory of Ukraine by boat.

During interrogation, the man said that a stranger offered him to engage in smuggling after Dyukarev complained to him about his difficult financial situation.

As it was established during the trial, Dyukarev's monthly income was only 8 thousand rubles.

“Dyukarev is a positive, hard-working person.

He undertook any work, repaired cars for neighbors, everyone spoke well of him.

There was no system in his actions, once, at the request of another person, he transported four boxes of cigarettes by boat from the territory of Ukraine.

There was no other work: we have a small mining town, all mines are closed, mostly pensioners live, "his lawyer Sergei Bashlaev told RT.

According to the lawyer, the court of first instance knew all these circumstances, but Dyukarev still received a real term.  

No damage caused

“In January 2020, right in the courtroom, Dyukarev was handcuffed. I was sure that the verdict was passed unfairly, so I appealed against it in all instances. The Rostov court left the verdict unchanged, the fourth cassation court in Krasnodar - unchanged. We fought for almost two years, and finally the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation corrected the mistakes, ”says Bashlaev.

“Taking into account the circumstances indicating that (the convicted person -

RT

) committed a crime due to a difficult financial situation, that the smuggled items were confiscated from him, he pleaded guilty, expressed remorse, and also taking into account the totality of mitigating circumstances for which the court referred to the living conditions of his family, in need of his help and material support, the conclusion of the court about the impossibility of correcting the convicted person without real imprisonment cannot be recognized as legal and justified, "the determination of the judicial colleague of the RF Armed Forces notes.

As the lawyer recalled, Dyukarev was not previously prosecuted and did not harm anyone by his actions.

“The crime itself, although it is serious, belongs to the category of economic.

This must also be taken into account, and the President has spoken about this more than once.

There are a lot of mitigating circumstances here.

His mother is 79 years old, his father is 80, they see poorly.

The verdict affected the living conditions of his entire family, and this must also be taken into account, ”Bashlaev is convinced.

"We must fight the reason"

Most lawyers believe that this decision of the Supreme Court could affect the practice and judges will now pay attention to mitigating factors.

As Bashlaev said, in his practice there were a number of similar cases and now he hopes to get the sentence reduced for them as well.

“We live in Donetsk, on the border with Ukraine.

There is no work, people have a difficult financial situation, so they often take on the smuggling of tobacco products.

In my practice alone, five people received the same sentences right in the courtroom.

And they all also had dependent young children.

I think that now the courts of first instance will take into account mitigating factors, ”Bashlaev said.

Lawyer Ramil Gizatullin also noted that the decision of the Supreme Court corrected a gross mistake of three instances.  

“Under these circumstances (commission of a crime of average gravity, admission of guilt, presence of dependents, difficult financial situation), he had not only better chances of receiving a suspended sentence, but also the prospects of terminating the criminal case, for example, due to active repentance,” he said.

At the same time, Gizatullin drew attention to the fact that the courts are obliged to make their acts taking into account the circumstances of the case and the personality of the defendant, and “not out of a feeling of pity for the financial situation of the defendant or convicted person”.

Lawyer Oleg Pakhomov, in turn, noted that the explanations of the Supreme Court are not always taken into account when making court decisions.

“The Supreme Court explains a lot, but the district courts, alas, do not always pay attention to plenums,” he recalled.

Pakhomov also considers the decision of the RF Armed Forces to be just.

“The man was not doing this because he had a secret business and he earned millions on smuggling.

But simply out of despair, I could not find another job.

How can the state ask him for this?

It is the problem of the state that people are sitting without work.

It is necessary to fight not with the investigation, but with the reason, ”he is sure.

Vitaly Dyukarev, as his lawyer said, is still in the colony, waiting for the ruling of the Supreme Court to arrive there.