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Hearings on abrogation of the General Plan of Moscow Development
(Genplan) which will ruin the city environment and lead to
a collapse of the city continued on September 22.
The Moscow City Court combined in one trial the suit by YABLOKO’s
leader Sergei Mitrokhin who demanded abrogation of the General
Plan and the same suit by Alexei Podchufarov who put forward
similar demands.
When the decision to combine the cases was adopted, Podchufarov
stated challenge to the Moscow City Court, as the Court was
financed from the budget of Moscow, which contradicts Article
124 of the Constitution (courts should be financed only from
the federal budget).
Sergei Mitrokhin supported this claim, stating that in his
view the court was “interested in a certain outcome of the
case”. However, this motion was declined by the court. Earlier
at the first trial Mitrokhin had stated his plea of abatement
to Judge Elmira Magzhanova, however this motion had been also
declined.
YABLOKO’s leader also made a motion to demand and attach
to the file the second state expertise of the General Plan.
This demand led to defendants’ confusion.
The representative of the Moscow City Duma confirmed that
the second state expertise existed, however, in his opinion,
it did not matter in the examination of the case. The representative
of the Mayor the contrary stated that the second expertise
had not been done, as it had not been necessary.
The first expertise – which as clearly negative – was available
in the file. Therefore, both the positions demonstrate that
there had been no a positive assessment of the General Plan
by the experts, Mitrokhin said. He also noted that in accordance
with the Moscow Development Code a General Plan can be adopted
only provided a positive conclusion of a state expertise is
obtained.
"If the court is unbiased, then it must accept our argument
that there has been no positive state expertise and this provides
grounds for satisfaction of our claim," Mitrokhin said.
Mitrokhin’s representatives also told the court that, despite
the decision taken at the first hearing of the case, the Moscow
government did not provide for review a number of documents.
The most important among them are the materials justifying
the project, and this is a file with calculations hundreds
of pages long.
"These are the materials containing analytical arguments
justifying the concept. They are needed for a complete examination
of the General Plan,” Vitaliy Reznikov, representative of
Mitrokhin in court, explained.
The Court confirmed that the documents should be submitted.
YABLOKO hopes to examined them by the next hearing which is
scheduled on October 6.
"Today we are facing an absurd situation when everyone
is interested in the fate of the Mayor of Moscow, but a document
threatening with a collapse to the city in the nearest perspective
remains without any attention. And only the YABLOKO party
is dealing with it,” Mitrokhin noted. "Apparently the
President and the other organisers of the campaign against
Luzhkov do not care about the fate of the city, they are only
interested in settling their personal political scores",
he added.
See also:
Protection
of Environment
On
June 7, 2010, YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin will start
litigation in the Moscow City Court disputing lawfulness of
the General Plan of Moscow Development. Press Release. June
4, 2010
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