Fighting Your Sentence in Russian Courts

How I build an appeal

• 01

  Consular & Diplomatic Coordination

  I keep the embassy in the loop myself, because a consul who knows the case can do things a lawyer cannot.

• 02

  Translation & Interpretation Audit

  I check every page of the record for language: whether the person really understood the charge, and whether the interpreter was there when the law requires it.

• 03

  Evidence Re-evaluation

  I go back through the evidence looking for what was never examined, and for what was obtained in a way the law does not allow.

• 04

  Procedural Violation Search

  I read the trial record line by line for the procedural mistakes that a court of appeal cannot leave standing.

• 05

  Human Rights Advocacy

  I put the person in front of the court, not just the article: who they are, what their life looks like, why the sentence does not fit them.

• 06

  Sentence Mitigation

  Where reversal is not realistic, I argue for the lesser outcome — a shorter term, a milder regime, or a measure other than prison.

This page is about how I work on an appeal. The procedure itself — deadlines, what the appellate court may and may not do, how a verdict is challenged step by step — is set out here: Appeal against a criminal verdict and Challenging a verdict.