Our monitor tells how he tried to attend a hearing in Kolpinsky District Court:
Information on the website of Kolpinsky District Court indicates that the hearings were scheduled for 12:30 and for 14:00 in courtroom 19. The monitor came in advance, but the door was locked. At 12.45 the secretary came out, she told our monitor that the court already heard the case at 12.30, because “there was only one representative in each case.” The secretary assures the monitor that the case scheduled for 14.00 would be trialed as planned.
At 14:20, a secretary came back from another part of the court. She asked our monitor:
– I do not understand, are you waiting for the hearing at 14:00?
– Yes.
– It has already passed in the second courtroom, because it was with video conferencing.
– Why didn’t you tell me that it would be in another room?
– I didn’t know that you were waiting for it…
No information about the second room was published either on the court’s website or in the printed notice on the doors of the courtroom.
