First ‘outing’ of Russian politician goes to court

Nikolai Alekseev, the organiser of Moscow Gay Pride, will be in court soon facing charges of slander and insult following his “outing” of a former State Duma (Parliament) deputy on live national television.

The Moscow prosecutors department have completed criminal investigation against the Mr. Alekseev.

The investigation was started after a complaint by former State Duma deputy Alexander Chuev, who accused the Pride organiser of slander and insults.

Prosecutors today confirmed the accusation against Nikolai Alekseev based on Articles 129 (slander) and 130 (insult) of Russian Criminal Code.

On June 21, Mr. Alekseev made the first ever outing of gay politician in Russia’s history.  Speaking on the NTV channel’s talk show K baryeru!, he allegedly called deputy Alexander Chuev from Fair Russia party  a “gay, coward and hypocrite”.

Six days later, deputy Chuev sent his complaint to the General Prosecution department asking it to check if Mr. Alekseev breached articles 129, 130 and 282 of Russian Criminal Code.  General Prosecution transferred the case to Moscow prosecution department which asked Moscow police to investigate it.

On July 31, a criminal case against Nikolai Alekseev was officially started.  Investigation was prolonged several times, with the permission of Moscow prosecution department, due to the interrogation of witnesses and the conduct of linguists.

It is expected that the criminal case against Moscow pride organizer will be sent to court shortly.  The court will have to give the final verdict of whether Mr. Alekseev committed any crimes under Russian legislation.

“The criminal case against me was conducted with multiple breaches of legislation and the investigators failed to find any prove of my guilt,” Mr. Alekseev said this afternoon.

“Until the court hearing I have no right to disclose the details of the case and the proof that is [to be] used against me.

“But during the court process, many details will become known.”

Mr. Alekseev went on to suggest that “the court has no other way than to declare me innocent.  Though in the current condition of pressure from authorities I can not exclude that the decision of the court will not be fair which is not anymore a surprise to us. In any case we are ready to lead this case up to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg”.

He said that he does not regret anything of what he did because “we reached the main goal of defeating Mr. Chuev in Duma elections in December”

Mr. Chuev failed to get 7% of votes for his Fair Russia party in Khabarovsk region where he headed the party list.  Since December 24 he is no longer a deputy of the Duma.

Mr. Alekseev promised that “the court hearing will be very thrilling and exciting – we are planning to invite our witnesses whose names we did not disclose during the investigation fearing pressure from the prosecution.”

GayRussia.Ru, UkGayNews.Org.Uk