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The Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Novgorod Regional Court considered the cassation appeal of a resident of Staraya Russa, convicted M. Petrov, and the cassation presentation of the state prosecutor T. Nikitina.

Twenty-six-year-old Petrov asked to review the sentence of the Starorussky City Court, according to which he was to serve a sentence of 5 years of imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony. By the sentence of the Starorussky City Court, Petrov was convicted of illegal sale of marijuana in large quantities and attempted illegal sale of the same drug.

As Svetlana Rassmekhina, press secretary of the regional court, told a Novgorodinform correspondent, the court of first instance established that Petrov illegally sold a large amount of narcotic drugs to citizen R. in early March 2006; a little later, on March 16, 2006, he was detained while attempting to illegally sell a narcotic drug to the same citizen R.

At the court hearing, Petrov did not admit his guilt, explaining that he had not sold marijuana to anyone before March 16. Later, wanting to help an acquaintance, he gave the latter bags of grass, having received money from him. However, he took the payment mechanically. At that moment, he was detained by officers of the State Drug Control Department.

Despite this testimony, Petrov's guilt was proven by written evidence, testimony of witnesses, one of whom was citizen R, who lives in Veliky Novgorod. He said that he bought a narcotic substance from Petrov M. in Staraya Russa, and when he himself was detained while selling marijuana, he cooperated with the state drug control authorities and voluntarily took part in a test purchase of a narcotic substance from Petrov M. At that moment, Petrov M. was detained.

In his cassation appeal, the convicted person pointed out the lack of evidence of his guilt in selling a narcotic substance to citizen R. in early March and the excessive severity of the punishment assigned to him. He explained his arguments by the fact that he is the only breadwinner in the family: his wife is on maternity leave, his mother is disabled, and he must also complete higher education and defend his diploma.

In his cassation appeal, the state prosecutor, on the contrary, considered the sentence imposed on the convicted person to be excessively lenient and would not contribute to his rehabilitation, given that drug trafficking crimes are classified as particularly serious.

The court of second instance (Novgorod Regional Court), having examined the case materials, came to the conclusion that the guilt of M.M. Petrov was proven by the testimony of witnesses and written evidence examined by the court. However, the panel of judges for criminal cases considered it impossible to admit that the punishment imposed by the court in this case was excessively lenient, since the court of first instance had already taken into account the mitigating circumstances cited by the convicted person in his cassation appeal.

It should be added that in the first half of 2006, the panel of judges for criminal cases of the Novgorod Regional Court reviewed 44 cases in cassation proceedings, in which sentences were issued under Articles 228-233 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Illegal actions with narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances". The number of such cases that underwent cassation consideration in the Novgorod Regional Court increased compared to the same period in 2005 (32 cases)

In district and city courts of Novgorod Oblast (first instance), 120 people were convicted in 2006 under Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Illegal production, sale or shipment of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their analogues). In 2005, these same courts convicted 108 people under this article.