05 July 2018, 18:46
Chechen SC refuses to change judge in Oyub Titiev's case
Today, the defence of Oyub Titiev, the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Grozny, has unsuccessfully requested to challenge the judge considering the transfer of the rights defender's case to another region.
Since January 11, 2018, Oyub Titiev is under arrest on charges of possessing marijuana. The rights defender asserts that the drugs were planted on him by a law enforcer.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that today, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya has begun consideration of the motion filed by the Oyub Titiev's defence to change the territorial jurisdiction of his case. Oyub Titiev himself participates in the trial through video communication, and he supported the motion filed by his advocates.
At trial, advocate Pyotr Zaikin requested the court to investigate the media reports with statements about the Oyub Titiev's guilt and asked to invite an interpreter from the Chechen language for that purpose. Oyub Titiev himself and his second advocate Dubrovina supported Pyotr Zaikin, while public prosecutor opposed the motion.
The judge dismissed the motion and explained his decision by the fact that there is a huge array of information about Oyub Titiev on the Internet. Pyotr Zaikin responded that he insisted on the investigation into the specific material and that he treated the refusal as a violation. The advocate challenged the judge.
Advocate Dubrovina and Oyub Titiev supported the motion to challenge the judge, while the public prosecutor called it groundless. After a short break, the judge refused to grant the motion for challenge, the HRC "Memorial" reports today in its Telegram channel.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 5, 2018 at 02:01 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
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