01 August 2018, 15:57
Court refuses to let video recording of a hearing in Oyub Titiev's case
Today, nine witnesses have come to the trial in the case against Oyub Titiev, the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" office in Grozny. The court has decided that video recording of the trial can threaten the security of the policemen who testify in the case.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 9, the Shali City Court of Chechnya extended Oyub Titiev's arrest until December 22. Earlier, the SC of Chechnya refused to consider Titiev's case outside of Chechnya and extended his arrest until July 25.
Since January 11, Oyub Titiev is under arrest on charges of possessing marijuana. He refuses to plead guilty asserting that the drug was planted on him by a law enforcer. According to his advocates, the case must be considered outside of Chechnya, as the republic's leadership has repeatedly insisted on Oyub Titiev's guilt.
Today, the next court hearing in the Oyub Titiev's case has been started with a 15-minute delay, since Oyub Titiev was brought to court at 10:15 a.m. Moscow time.
The court hearing has begun with the consideration of the motion to permit video recording of the trial filed by the information agency "Chechnya Today". Public prosecutor opposed the motion. He referred to the fact that the court would interrogate the current policemen, who could then be transferred to the operational service, where those video records could harm them. The court dismissed the motion, although advocate Ilya Novikov stated "the defence stood for the transparency of the trial," and Oyub Titiev supported the defence position, reported the HRC "Memorial" in its Telegram channel while broadcasting from the court hearing.
The court secretary reported that nine witnesses had come to the court.
According to the defence version, on the day of his detention, Oyub Titiev was twice brought to a police station. According to the advocates, the fact of the repeated delivery of Oyub Titiev to the police station proves that the case on drug possession is falsified.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 1, 2018 at 10:44 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: CK correspondent
