22:44, 9 July 2018

Arrest of Chechen rights defender Oyub Titiev extended by six months

Oyub Titiev delivered to the Shali City Court of Chechnya. July 9, 2018. Photo by the press service of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial"

The Shali City Court of Chechnya has extended the arrest of Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", until December 22.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 5, the Supreme Court of Chechnya denied the defence's motion to consider the Titiev's case outside Chechnya, indicating that the case is subject to jurisdiction of the Shali City Court. Today, the defence has challenged to the court.

Since January 11 this year, Oyub Titiev is under arrest on charges of possessing marijuana. He keeps asserting that the drug was planted on him by a law enforcer. According to his defence, the case should be considered outside of Chechnya, since its authorities have repeatedly pointed to Titiev's guilt.

According to Pyotr Zaikin, one of the advocates, the prosecution has claimed 70 witnesses, the "Novaya Gazeta" writes.

The advocate has explained that such a long Oyub's arrest is caused by the fact that it is extremely difficult to gather such a large number of witnesses.

Today, in central Moscow, rights defenders Svetlana Gannushkina and Oleg Orlov were detained during their solo pickets in support of Titiev.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 9, 2018 at 04:31 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.