In case of caliphate, trial interrupted to check defendants’ complaints about torture

On April 14, at a court hearing in the case against natives of Kabardino-Balkaria accused of attempting to create a caliphate with the Sharia form of government in Kabardino-Balkaria, the judge decided to check the complaint filed by the defendants about the use of torture against them at the preliminary investigation stage.

The defence requested to allocate at least two weeks to check the complaints. However, the Court treated that the time period until April 27 would be sufficient, and a new court hearing was scheduled for that day.

"In the course of the check, public prosecutor is to demand to submit medical documents from the defendants' personal files and from the register of the SIZO (pre-trial prison). The documents can make it possible to find out whether torture or other unlawful methods of investigation were used against the defendants. Besides, nothing is written in the personal files of all the defendants for the time period starting from the moment of their detention until their first interrogations. So, the Prosecutor's Office should find out where the defendant spent the time periods from several hours to several days," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by advocate Alexei Melder after the court hearing.

According to advocate Marietta Arutyunyan, the defence is not optimistic for the results of the check, since the procedure will be carried out by the interested party.

"The defence can wait, request, and insist. However, we should not forget that the check will be carried out by public prosecutors, who, despite their existing functions of control over investigators, are not interested in collapsing the case at the trial," Marietta Arutyunyan explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.