Another court hearing on the case of Boliev concluded in Dagestan

Today, the court hearing in the Khasavyurt town court of Dagestan has been resumed on the case of the human rights activist Osman Boliev accused of storage, acquisition and wearing of arms took place in Dagestan. The defence represented by lawyers Ahmed Umaev and Salimat Kadyrova filed an application to exclude from the list of evidences the report on Boliev's search because it had not been signed either by the persons conducting the search or by Boliev. Salimat Kadyrova stated that "it is obvious that the evidence was obtained with violations of legislative requirements and have no legal force. If the report is not signed it is not valid."

"No statement of refusal to sign is envisaged either in the RF Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) or the Code of Administrative Offences (CAO). If a person refuses to sign documents compiled under an administrative or criminal case, the document itself must contain an appropriate record that he or she refuses to sign it. It is explicitly written in the CCP and the CAO. However, there are no such records in the documents, there is only one statement on the refusal to sign all the documents," states the lawyer.

Presiding judge Yarali Ramazanov, after an absence in the deliberation room for about 5 minutes, passed the verdict: "To decline the application of the defence to the effect of recognizing as inadmissible and excluding from the list of procedural documents."

Lawyer Ahmed Umaev states "I am surprised with the judge's approach because, since the document is not signed, it is not valid and, therefore, the case is not worth a damn. It is not clear what the prosecution hopes for."

It is surprising that the court ruling is three pages long and at the end, above the judge's signature, it contains the record "compiled and printed in the deliberation room." How could the document be compiled, printed on the computer and printed out within such a short time is not clear. It seems that the ruling had been compiled and printed out in advance, which is a gross violation of the law.

The militia officers who had taken part in the Boliev's detainment failed to appear in court as witnesses. The judge asked why they were absent, and Gagarin Omarov, state prosecutor, answered that they were expected to come and asked to wait for 20 minutes. As a result, the break lasted for almost two hours. After the session was resumed the prosecution summoned the available witness for interrogation, but not from those listed in the case. Arsen Khasaev, officer of the criminal investigation department in Khasavyurt, stated the he had been present during the Boliev's search when, in the presence of the search witnesses, a grenade was confiscated. However, when lawyer Salimat Kadyrova asked him, "why is your name not mentioned in the report", he was unable to answer, saying that he "remembers nothing."

Osman Boliev himself stated in court that he did not feel well and needed medical treatment as he had been brought to the trial from the hospital. In response, judge Ramazanov asked him to show a certificate stating "Boliev's bad state of health." Further on, Boliev refused to give any evidence and asked the court hearing to be adjourned due to the absence of Sergey Brovchenko, one of the lawyers. The judge responded: "We have duly notified all the lawyers, including Brovchenko, 5 days before the hearing. If he wanted he would have taken part in the trial."

Upon the request of the prosecution who stated that not all witnesses could take part in the trial, the court hearing was adjourned until March 17.

The hearing is scheduled to start at 10 a.m.. The court intends to interrogate witnesses for the prosecution. This has been reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by lawyer Ahmed Umaev and defendant Osman Boliev who attended the court hearing.

Earlier, on March 13, Osman Boliev was released from custody upon a petition of the defence. Lawyer Sergey Brovchenko who defends Boliev with the assistance of the "Public Verdict" foundation, the human rights activist was illegally placed in custody. "The report on the detainment has not been signed even by the person who detained him and found that ammunition was in his pockets. He never gave any testimony during investigation, except once about nothing," said the defence lawyer to the"Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

For reference, Osman Boliev was detained on November 15, 2005 traffic militia officers under the pretext of checking information about his car which they claimed resembled the one registered as stolen. However, on the way to the Khasavyurt militia station, Boliev's car was stopped by officers of the RF MIA operational search mobile unit (RF MIA OSMU). The traffic militia officers handed Boliev over to the mobile unit officers and left. The latter, in their turn, placed О. Boliev into their car, put a bag over his head, handcuffed him and brought to the internal affairs unit of Khasavyurt. According to the human rights activist, they were torturing him at the militia station for several hours, then searched his and "discovered" a dismantled grenade on him. Initially, they tried to accuse Boliev of membership in an illegal armed unit.

"Osman is only armed with a pen. It is a terrible armament which he used to write to the European Court. I am sure that this is the reason why they initiated a criminal case against him," stated Sergey Brovchenko to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "Immediately after his detainment on November 15 last year, he was severely beaten and tortured for four hours. He lost conscience several times. The militia officers, while beating him, said that "his behaviour is wrong." Then they found a fuse and the body of a grenade in two pockets of his coat," related the lawyer.

Lawyer Salimat Kadyrova told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent yesterday that she had applied to the Khasavyurt prosecutor's office with a request to initiate criminal proceedings against the Dagestan power authority's officers who had been torturing and beating her defendant. However, as it follows from the response of the prosecutor's office, those facts had not been confirmed in the course of a check.

In the opinion of the defence lawyers, the prosecution files contain a number of strange circumstances. "Firstly, the search was conducted not on the place where Boliev was detained, but at the militia station. Logically speaking, Boliev, when he was following the traffic militia car, he could have got rid of the grenade parts, but he failed to do so," runs the statement of the "Public Verdict" foundation. "Secondly, the documents submitted to the prosecutor's office lacked a description of the grenade. Thirdly, the documents submitted to the prosecutor's office for initiating a criminal case lacked examination of the search witnesses (such materials of examination were submitted only several days later). Fourthly, the documents submitted to the prosecutor's office for initiating a criminal case lacked the materials on administrative detainment."

A number of experts think that the cause of the Boliev's charge has been his professional activity. The "Romashka" public organization headed by Boliev has been initiator of notorious court proceedings on the case of kidnapping of Dagestan resident Yaraly Israilov on October 19, 2004 by officers of Khasavyurt department of internal affairs. Boliev, along with Karina Moskalenko, head of International Protection Facilitation Centre, compiled and sent a complaint on the case to the European Court on Human Rights. In addition, Boliev publicly disclosed the fact of murder of Summai Abdurashitova, a 6-year old girl, by Dagestan law enforcement officers during a secret operation on arresting suspected criminals. She was killed on March 14, 2005 in her bed in the village of Solnechnoye, Khasavyurt District, by a fragment of a large-calibre shell. A complaint on the case was also filed in the European Court.