The state prosecution is requesting that the court find former director of the Ukrainian Literature Library Iryna Sharina, who is charged with extremism and embezzlement of the library’s funds, guilty and give her a suspended sentence of five years, an Interfax correspondent reported.
“I request that Sharina be found guilty and that she be given a five year suspended sentence,” a state prosecutor said in Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court.
Sharina’s defense team asked the court at the previous hearing to return the case to the prosecutor’s office on formal grounds and due to violations committed by investigators, but the court dismissed the defense team’s motion.
The law enforcement structures conducted searches at the Ukrainian Literature Library on October 28, 2015, following which library director Sharina was detained. A criminal case under the article reading ‘Incitement of ethnic hatred and enmity and violation of human dignity’ of the Russian Criminal Code was initially opened against her. According to investigators, the case was opened on the grounds of the fact that the library offered visitors Dmytro Korchynsky’s works, which were qualified as extremist materials by a Russian court and banned from use.
The number of materials declared extremist and banned in Russia, which, according to investigators, Sharina distributed, later increased to almost 20.
On April 5, 2016, Sharina was charged on another count, embezzlement in an especially large amount. According to investigators, Sharina spent funds intended for salaries of the library’s lawyers on her defense in the first criminal case of extremism, which was subsequently closed, in 2011-2013. Another charge of embezzlement, this time in a large amount, was later brought against her.
Investigators believe that Sharina “in violation of law organized obtainment of payment orders from a settlement account of the Department of Finance for Moscow to a settlement account of the Moscow City Bar Association in the total amount of 297,000 rubles” and embezzled 3.2 million rubles, having on paper hired the acquaintances of her lawyer, transferring salary to them and providing them health insurance. Thus, she inflicted damage in the amount of 3.5 million rubles, investigators said.
Sharina has been placed under house arrest, which was repeatedly extended by the court, and she remains under house arrest to date. In early February, Sharina’s defense team appealed against the conditions of her house arrest to the Strasbourg court.
