Facing a nine-year prison sentence, Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin uses his courtroom statement to urge Putin to end the Ukraine war.
““”……Mr. Putin! As you look at the consequences of this monstrous war, you probably realize what a big mistake you made on February 24. No one is greeting our army with flowers. We are called invaders and occupiers. Your name is now firmly associated with death and destruction.””””
Ilya Yashin is poised to become the first opposition politician in Russia to be imprisoned for speaking the truth about atrocities committed against civilians in Bucha.
State prosecutors have asked Moscow Judge Oksana Goryunova to lock away Yashin for nine years and then ban him from using the Internet for another four as punishment for comments he made during a livestream where he discussed how occupying Russian troops murdered and abused the residents of the Kyiv suburb earlier this year.
In his closing statement on Monday (later published on his Telegram channel and here below the photo), Yashin appealed to President Putin, urging him to end the war with Ukraine immediately. Meduza translated Yashin’s courtroom speech, omitting the very introduction. His verdict is expected on Wednesday, December 7, 2022.
His BRAVE statement to the Russian judge below the photo
Ilya Yashin Alexander Zemlyanichenko / AP / Scanpix / LETA
Your Honor, I’m grateful for the way this trial was organized. You have conducted it publicly, before the press and an audience, without interfering when I wanted to speak or getting in the way of my defense. It might all seem mundane: this is how a court should work in any normal country. But in the burnt field of Russian justice, this process stands out as something that seems alive.
Believe me: I do appreciate this.
I’ll be frank, Ms. Goryunova: You, too, have made an unusual impression. I noticed your interest in what the prosecution and the defense were saying to you, your way of reacting to my words, and how you sometimes doubt and reflect on things. For the government, you’re a mere cog in the machine designed to do what it’s told. But I see you as a living person who will take off the judge’s robe in the evening to go grocery shopping at the same store where my mom buys her cottage cheese. I am sure that you and I are bothered by the same problems. I’m sure that you are just as shaken by this war as I am, and that you pray for this nightmare to end as soon as possible.
You know, Ms. Goryunova, I have a principle that I’ve been following for many years: Do what you must, and whatever happens, happens. When the war began, I didn’t have a second’s doubt about what I must do. I must be in Russia, I must speak the truth loudly, and I must do everything in my power to stop the bloodshed. I was physically in pain from realizing the number of people dying in this war, the number of broken lives, and of families who lost their homes. This is something we mustn’t put up with, and I swear that I do not regret anything. It’s better to spend 10 years behind bars as an honest man than to burn silently in shame for the blood being shed by your government.
Of course, Your Honor, I don’t expect any miracle to happen here.
You know that I’m innocent, and I know that you’re under pressure from the system.
It’s obvious that you’ll have to issue a guilty verdict. I have no hard feelings against you, and I don’t wish you anything bad. But try to do everything in your power to prevent injustice. Remember that your decision isn’t only about me and my personal fate — it’s also a verdict on the part of our society that wants to live in a peaceful and civilized way. That part of society might well include yourself, Ms. Goryunova.
I would like to make use of this lectern to address the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. I’d like to speak to him as the person responsible for this slaughter, the person who signed the “military censorship” law and whose will it is that I’m now in jail.
Mr. Putin! As you look at the consequences of this monstrous war, you probably realize what a big mistake you made on February 24. No one is greeting our army with flowers. We are called invaders and occupiers. Your name is now firmly associated with death and destruction.
SOURCE..: QUORRA DIGEST.