Titiev's defence demands holding new investigative experiment

Investigators have incorrectly reproduced the circumstances, in which policemen had allegedly found narcotic drugs in the car of Oyub Titiev, a rights defender and the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", his advocate has stated today.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at the January 22 court session, the defence filed a petition for a technical examination of the video surveillance cameras installed at the pharmacies, shops and administrative buildings in the city of Kurchaloi, which all were inoperative on the day of Oyub Titiev's detention.

Today, at the start of the session, Judge Zainetdinova has rejected the petition for a forensic examination of the video cameras and registrars, says the broadcast of the session in the Telegram channel of the HRC "Memorial".

Then, Titiev's defence filed a petition for a new investigative experiment with a detailed re-creation of the situation, in which an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) allegedly accidentally saw some marijuana spilled on the rug of Oyub's car and a black bag – under the seat, human rights defenders assert.

According to the defence, the experiment, conducted during the preliminary investigation, "does not stand any criticism."

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 28, 2019 at 01:01 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.