Relatives of convicted Kurchaloi residents publicly recognize their guilt

Family members of three out of 14 residents of the Kurchaloi District, sentenced for terrorism, on air of the republic's TV asked not to spread the video showing relatives reacting with indignation to the court verdict.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 12, residents of Chechnya reported severe sentences awarded to 14 young people convicted for terrorism. In the video posted on the WhatsApp and made near the courthouse, convicts' relatives and friends express their indignation at the verdicts: women are weeping, and men run after the paddy wagon driving out the yard of the courthouse, knocking on the body thereof. The convicts' family members had believed the promises of law enforcers and refrained from making the case public in hope for lenient sentences, convicts' relatives told the "Caucasian Knot".

On September 13, video clips with convicts' weeping relatives were again distributed in the WhatsApp. Messenger users stated in their comments that juveniles had been convicted. "They take children right from school and immediately sentence them to 10-15 years in prison – children aged 9-15," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent quotes one of the users.

After that, the nightly news programme of the "Grozny" Chechen State Radio and TV Channel (known as ChGTRK) showed a report, in which Turpal Mirzaev, a deputy head of the Kurchaloi ROVD (District Interior Division), denied this information. "The fact that [school-age] children were detained is not true, since a group of 14 people was detained early this year; and the youngest of them was born in 1998," he said in the programme, which was also posted on September 13 on the "Grozny" ChGTRK's YouTube channel.

Relatives of the convicts do not consider them to be innocent, the authors of the television report said. In support of this version, a story was shown about brothers of three of the 14 convicts.

Turpal-Ali Abuev, a brother of one of them, said that relatives, friends and parents had gathered near the courthouse before the sentencing. "It's unclear who filmed and distributed it (the video). This is a great evil. They (the convicts) were imprisoned for their (committed) crimes. A request is to those who distribute (the videos) not to do this. There is my brother (among the convicts). He is the youngest (of them); he is 20. He is not a schoolboy," Abuev said in the TV programme.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 14, 2018 at 10:45 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.