Aslan Cherkesov's relatives outraged by Supreme Court's decision on his case

Relatives of Aslan Cherkesov, a native of Nalchik, convicted to twenty years in prison for murdering Yegor Sviridov, are outraged by the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia to mitigate his term by two months only. Cherkesov's relatives and fellow-countrymen do not exclude new protest actions in his support.

"Supreme Court had a good laugh over the whole Caucasus"

Sonia Cherkesova, the mother of the convict, had hoped for a greater mitigation by the Supreme Court of her son's verdict. "But they are just laughing at my grief and over the entire Kabarda, over the whole Caucasus. My son didn't let to kill him; and they 'softened' his sentence by two months," she said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In her opinion, such moods may provoke actions in defence of her son among residents of the republic. "When on that occasion young people came out to a rally and blocked the federal highway, I didn't even know about it," she said. "What the consequences of this court decision will be this time, and whether they will be at all, I don't know. But young people understand that tomorrow any of them may be in Aslan's place. Therefore, I'll not be surprised if protests happen again."

The mother believes that the murdered Yegor Sviridov was turned into "a folk hero; and a memorial cross was erected in his honour." This fact and the visit of Prime Minister Putin to Sviridov's grave "had played a fatal role" in defining Aslan Cherkesov's verdict, she said.

Yesterday, on January 24, Sonia Cherkesova visited the UFSIN (Department of the Russian Corrective Service) of the city of Nalchik and asked to transfer her son for serving his term in his homeland. "They told me: 'Those who are first-time convicts are not transferred here'," said Cherkesova. "But all the media kept trumpeting that Aslan had two convictions. Thus, when it was necessary for forming the negative public opinion, my son had previous convictions; but when the sentence was passed, they tell me that it's his first conviction. That's all the justice."

"Should Cherkesov have been in place of Sviridov, nobody would have ever learnt the story"

In the opinion of Tatiana Cherkesova, the convict's wife, if Aslan should have been murdered instead of Sviridov, "then, nobody would have known about the incident." "My husband defended himself and his friends, as is customary in the Caucasus; now he'll spend almost 20 years in jail for that," she said, adding that she regretted "that Aslan killed Yegor Sviridov."

Anya Cherkesova, Aslan's sister, who attended the session of the Russian Supreme Court, has treated the court's decision to shorten her brother's term by two months as ridiculous.

"The verdict passed to my brother is very cruel; however, in view of the created anti-Caucasian public opinion, any softer verdict was impossible," she said. "Aslan's sentence indicates that the judicial and executive powers of Moscow fell hostages to public opinion, which is formed by nationalist organizations."

At the same time, the sister does not deny her brother's guilt: "He killed a human, and must bear the lawful punishment."

Cherkesov's relatives intend to file a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg.

"Retrial of the case would be fair"

Dmitry Pankov, Aslan Cherkesov's advocate, is also unhappy with the decision of the Supreme Court decision and believes that it would have been fair for the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict and send the case to a new trial.

The defender intends to write a supervisory complaint and a complaint to the ECtHR. He is sure that, given the high resonance of Cherkesov's case, it will be considered there in an accelerated manner.