Lawyer sentenced for talk show secrecy violation
In Novosibirsk, the Dzerzhinsky District Magistrate«s Court today closed the criminal case against lawyer Vladimir Buzyurgin. He was found guilty and sentenced to a fine, but released from punishment: the statute of limitations expired last summer. The lawyer himself reported this to NGS.
The lawyer was accused of violating investigative secrecy (Article 310 of the Russian Criminal Code). Investigators from the Investigative Committee (SK) concluded that by showing a fragment of a video recording of his client«s interrogation on the talk show «Muzhskoe i Zhenskoe» (Men»s and Women«s), he violated the secrecy of the preliminary investigation.
Vladimir Buzyurgin was defending Novosibirsk resident Ivan Prudnikov, who was accused of murdering teenager Dima Abramov in 2018 at a campsite in the park «U morya Obskogo» (By the Ob Sea). In 2023, when the high-profile criminal case was being heard in court, Buzyurgin participated in recording a television show episode and showed experts recordings of his client«s confession.
After his arrest, the young man confessed to the murder on camera, but later retracted his statement, claiming he had been coerced. Psychologists from the show who studied the recording — and later, the juries (the murder case was heard sequentially by three jury panels) — reached the same conclusion. SK investigators considered the TV appearance a violation of investigative secrecy and opened a criminal case against the lawyer.
The prosecution asked to sentence Vladimir Buzyurgin to 400 hours of community service with a ban on practicing law, but to release him from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The defense insisted on his full innocence.
The court sentenced the lawyer to a fine of 50,000 rubles (about $555 at current rates) with a one-year ban on practicing law, but released him from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
«Of course, we will appeal the verdict, if necessary — to the very last instance», commented Vladimir Buzyurgin.
Earlier, NGS wrote about how that same murder case ended, which put Vladimir Buzyurgin in the dock. An acquittal for Ivan Prudnikov was only achieved on the third attempt: one jury panel was disbanded just as it had formed its opinion, and the verdict based on the second verdict was overturned.
