Video ‘caught trial judge sleeping’

Published on 02/02/2013 02:40

A RUSSIAN judge has resigned after a video apparently showed him asleep during a trial that ended with him sentencing the defendant to five years in a penal colony.

Critics of the Russian justice system were outraged when the video purporting to show judge Yevgeny Makhno sleeping through a defence lawyer’s speech was posted online last month.

The film, allegedly shot during a fraud trial last July in the far-eastern town of Blagoveshchensk, seems to show Mr Makhno slumped in his chair, fast asleep.

A businessman sentenced to five years of hard labour will have a new trial later this month after an appeal was lodged over the “unjust” sentence, Russian media said.

Russia’s justice system has been in the spotlight recently over several high-profile court cases including the trial of punk protest collective, Pussy Riot.

Yesterday, a band member claimed a jailed member of the group is in hospital after complaining of headaches and of suffering from overwork at a prison colony known for its tough conditions.

The Federal Prison Service declined to specify Nadezhda
Tolonnikova’s condition.