RUSSIAN LAW

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18064, 15 April 1933, Page 13

RUSSIAN LAW

CONDUCT OF CASES JUDGES WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE The death sentence has been abolished in Russia, except for political crimes, but what is termed “social dangerousness,” under which political offences may bo classified by an extremely elastic practice, keeps the executioners busy. According fo writers who havo had experience of it, Soviet justice is concerned, not with prevention and punishment of ordinary crime, but with the protection of the Red State. Political offences may cause the death of the unfortunate, but tho extreme penalty for ordinary murder is 10 years’ imprisonment. In civil cases the social origin of the contending parties exerts a predominating inlluenee. The civil courts deal out different “justice” to the workers and to the bourgeois, and consequently people not of worker or peasant origin rarely bring a ease against anyone of the new ruling class. In “Red Russia,” written by Theodor Seibert, a German journalist, who represented several newspapers during four years’ residence in Russia, some remarkable cases arc reported, showing the danger with which anyone is faced who has to stand trial for a political offence. Ho states that the Bolsheviks have disregarded the principles of modern jurisprudence. The judges in the law courts are elected for a year’s term by the provincial executive committees of the Soviet, and, as they can be cashiered at any time, they are in the hands of the authorities, which means tho ruling political party. No -preliminary legal training is required in tho c;*se of a judge or magistrate. It is sufficient that ho has worked for several years in a party bureau or working class organisation. THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR’S POWERS The lack of legal experts is made good by strongly centralised public prosecutors, who thus exercise a decisive influence on the proceedings. So, too, with tho Bar. There is no independent defending counsel obtainable. The place of the free counsel is taken by the “Collegium of Defenders,” the members of which are appointed by the Soviet after nomination by the provincial law courts. For practical purposes (says the author) the defending counsel in a Soviet law court cuts a pitiful figure. In political trials counsel for the defence give the 'impression of doing their work under stress of unceasing terror. The poor vestiges of free advocacy remaining in contemporary Russia are a thorn in tho side of the Bolshevik leaders, Public Prosecutor Krylenko more than once denouncing these unhappy defenders in very rough terms. This Krylenko is described as a fanatic of fanatics, tho Foquior-Tinville of the Russian revolution, always in fighting trim, ruthless, cynical, fatherly, caressive, or fierce, according to circumstances, and never allowing sentiment to interfere with business. He is indicated in the cables as likely to be in charge of the trial of the Metropolitan Vickers employees. “There is no word in English, French, or German,” says Seibert, “which can fitly describe Soviet Russian ‘legal’ theory and practice. There is no law in the Soviet State. There are only regulations to facilitate the use of police measures for expanding and maintaining tho Bolshevik dictatorship. The Bolshevik leaders have never seriously contended that law in the western sense of the term exists in Russia.

The "preliminary inquiry” is an important part of the criminal procedure. According ,io the code, an accused person must be brought before the court within 24 hours; but in actual practice persons are kept in prison for many days, or weeks, after arrest: without bping brought up for trial and without the,,silence with which they are surrounded being broken, the object being to produce mental depression, and to arouse a state of mind in .which the accused will be ready to make an avowal. Both the preliminary , inquiry and the actual trial are. under the supervision of the public prosecutor. When tho actual trial begins, the importance of the public. prosecutor becomes even greater. He is entitled to veto the closing of a preliminary inquiry, to refer tin' ease back for further investigation, to make changes in the indictment or the list or persons to lie brought before the court, and to order postponement of the trial.

CHIEF JUSTICE A FACTO]? V WORKER

According to Sibert’s account of several cases which lie attended, the trials are, when the authorities think fit, transformed into a political demonstration, and mention is made of wireless microphones and the constant Hashing of the high-power lamps of the cinema operators. The judges, the defending counsel, and the public prosecutors were all at liberty to smoke as much as they pleased. In one case cited Krylenko enumerated witnesses for the prosecution, and the defending counsel in turn put in ,an extensive summary of rebutting evidence. At this Krylenko feigned amusement, then looked rather bored, and then made notes. Those acquainted with him could realise that the barometer was at “stormy.” The character of the trial was revealed when the court decided that almost all the witnesses named by the public prosecutor should lie called, but that almost all the witnesses named for the defence and the documentary evidence the defending counsel desired to put in should be disallowed. In the criminal code an article formerly read: “The court will .form its decision exclusively on the grounds of fact recorded in the documents and proved during the sitting of the court.” In the text of a new decree issued in 19.28 the sentence ended at the word “documents.” The deletion of the words “which have been proved during the sittiug of the court” signified neither more or less than a Moviet court can condemn accused persons upon the ground of accusations which have never been made known either to the prisoner or to the public. This enormously intensifies the importance of the secret preliminary inquiry.

The late Mr Ashmead-'Bartlett, in his book, “The Riddle of Russia,”

published in 1021), recorded an interview he had with the Chief Justice of Moscow. lie described him as a very young man who had been a factory worker. He explained that it was a fundamental principle of Soviet law that all crimes and civil cases should be tried by the people themselves, and that it was contrary to Soviet principles to employ professional judges, us that would do nway with the supreme sovereignty of the people. The political offenders (wrote Mr Asluneadjiartlett) are always sent to a special tribunal composed of faithful servants of the Government, who can be relied upon to bring in ,a verdict of guilty. And, in fact, they would not dare to bring in any other verdict once Krylenko had called for their conviction. The author related that while the interview was proceeding, an individual came in and sat by the Chief .Justice, and from that moment the judge fell

into an extreme and pitiful state of nervousness. It was explained afterwards that tin' newcomer bad been

sent to spy on the judge and report to the authorities. The old judges of the Czarist times have all disappeared, having been either killed off or sunk amongst the dregs of the population. Barristers, il is staled, are placed in a painful position, torn between fear and their duty, when they are asked to defend political prisoners. They dare not make a logical and eloquent defence of their clients. All they can do is to present their case in the most favorable light, and bring out in the mildest and most impartial manner any points in his favor.

The system as described by both authors is one of mass terror. The (Ire,tided 0.G.1’.U. (secret police) is all powerful. When it makes arrests il prefers to do so by night secretly. No intimation is given to friends or relatives of the victims, and sometimes persons are shot without being given any idea how they got into trouble. Generally anything the hardest critic of Western justice could say would be insignificant as compared with the systematic travesty of justice iu Soviet Russia. In the criminal procedure accused persons are deprived of safeguards which elsewhere are taken as a matter of course.