After five months of legal proceedings, a judge in the Shatura city court, in the Moscow region, decided on Monday that 27-year-old Arshak Makichyan’s citizenship was invalid, along with that of his father and two brothers.According to Makichyan’s lawyer Olga Podoplelova, the judge’s behaviour in the final hearing was unorthodox.“According to Russian law, the court is obliged to announce the resolution immediately after the hearing – that is, the judge committed a very serious violation, which calls into question her independence and decision-making, based on her own inner convictions without anyone else’s influence.”At the time of writing, the Shatura prosecutor’s office, which initiated proceedings, had not replied to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.If Makichyan and Podoplelova’s suspicions are correct, the judge’s behaviour could be an example of “telephone justice”, in which judges are instructed over the phone to deliver verdicts by certain interested parties.“Under normal circumstances, there would be a chance to win this case,” said Podoplelova, explaining that when documents have apparently been lost, as in Makichyan’s case, the Supreme Court has ruled that responsibility cannot be shifted to citizens."