Lawyer: Prosecution uses fake evidence in Pussy Riot trial
MOSCOW. July 31 (Interfax) - The defense of the three members of the Pussy Riot punk rock band who are on trial for a scandalous anti-Putin performance inside a Moscow cathedral in February claimed on Tuesday that the prosecution's case was partially based on fake evidence.
"We have found out that the testimonies of two different members of the injured party contain identical pieces of text, even with the same spelling and grammatical errors. This means that the investigator did not take down the testimonies from the words of the members of the injured party or witnesses but himself wrote all that he pleased to whereas they signed it without looking at it," lawyer Nikolai Polozov said.
He asked the court to order that the two testimonies be read out.
The lawyers for the injured party objected, arguing that the alleged coincidence was more likely the result of sluggishness, while the prosecutor said there were no formal grounds for satisfying Polozov's appeal. The judge concurred and dismissed the defense lawyer's appeal.
Polozov also said: "Moreover, the page numbers in the file that we have don't coincide, which has brought us to the conclusion that more than 100 sheets had been added to it illegally."
The three Pussy Riot members, all of them young women, are being tried by the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow on charges of "hooliganism" for performing a song inside the Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Savior that was part of the protest movement against Vladimir Putin's candidacy for president. The accused have been jailed since March.
