The Novgorod Case was the controversial criminal case against Mrs. Antonina Martynova (formerly Fyodorova, née Stepanova). She was facing charges of attempted murder of her then 2-year-old daughter, Alisa. The only witness was a 12 year old boy.
Antonina was being prosecuted under Articles 30.3 ("Preparations for a Crime, and Attempted Crimes") and 105.2 ("Murder") of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (CC-RF henceforth; these links and other Code(s) links below are for the English translation(s) of the latest versions of the Code(s), those currently in force in Russia).
The case has been the subject of broad-ranging public debate in Russian media, online communities, and blogs. The discussion began in April 2007 with a post in the (Russian-language) blog of Antonina's husband (her domestic partner at the time), Mr. Kirill Martynov, aka LiveJournal user "hvil".
Background
The term "Novgorod Case" was first used by the Russian news agency REGNUM on April 20, 2007. The main events of the case took place in the City of Veliky Novgorod, Russia.
There are three people in Antonina's family. Her husband, Kirill Martynov, is a journalist and a lecturer of Philosophy at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Antonina, 22 and temporarily unemployed, is taking care of her daughter, Alisa, born in 2004 to Antonina's first marriage.
Until mid-August 2007, the investigation was conducted by the Major Case Investigator Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Kolodkin, of Veliky Novgorod (MCI or MCI Kolodkin henceforth).
Timeline
2007
On February 26, Alisa fell down two floors of a stairwell in the building where her grandmother lives, in Veliky Novgorod. An 11-year-old boy, a friend of a neighbor's son, witnessed the fall. The boy allegedly stood on the landing one floor above. He reported to the neighbors that he had seen "an older girl push a younger one down". Antonina claims it was an accident.
See versions of the events as seen by the prosecution and the defense below.
The mother and daughter were rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. A medical examination revealed that Alisa sustained a concussion and some damage to her jaw, lost four teeth and had minor bruises. During the examination, the police, promptly called by the neighbours, had Antonina make a written testimony of the events.
On March 16, Antonina was visited by a police officer who brought her an official summons to testify as a witness in an inquiry into Alisa's fall. According to Kirill, the officer also said that Antonina's actions constitute a corpus delicti under Article 105 of CC-RF ("Murder")
On March 18, Antonina's defence was taken up by Mr. Konstantin Pakin. A former criminal investigator, Pakin is known for his defence of one Yevgeny Mikhailov charged with the murder of Mr. Dmitry Balashov, a once-famous Russian writer. According to Kirill, Pakin only agreed to take the case on strict non-disclosure terms and intimated he would drop it immediately if it were to attract too much public attention.
On March 19, the MCI Kolodkin took the testimony of Antonina and Kirill.
On March 20, on Pakin's advice, Antonina underwent an independent polygraph ("lie detector") test.
On March 22, the MCI officially opened a criminal investigation under Articles 30.3 ("Intentional actions (inaction) by the person concerned, directed expressly towards the commission of a crime") and 105.1 ("Murder") of CC-RF
On March 23, a member of the Public Chamber of Russian Federation, Mr. Aleksey Chadayev, filed an official request with the Office of the Novgorod City Public Prosecutor, for the attention of Novgorod City Prosecutor Mr. Andrey Yefimov. In the request, Chadayev demanded that all those case materials not covered by official investigation secrecy be delivered to the Public Chamber Committee on Relations with Regions and Police Authorities.
On March 26, the President of the Union of Writers of Russia, Mr. Valery Ganichev, wrote a letter to the Governor of the Novgorod Region, Mr. Mikhail Prusak. The letter stated that Antonina and Kirill have a healthy relationship and asked the governor to pay special attention to the case. Ganichev subsequently received a reply from the Novgorod City Hall that his letter had been forwarded to the Office of the Novgorod City Public Prosecutor.