Rights defenders treat verdict to Ruslan Kutaev as too severe

The verdict to Ruslan Kutaev, President of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, will be appealed against. This was announced by Pyotr Zaikin, an advocate of the human rights defender. The decision of the Urus-Martan City Court pronounced against Ruslan Kutaev, is politically motivated and unprecedentedly severe, and the very criminal case was fabricated. This was stated by experts in the field of human rights protection.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 7, the Urus-Martan City Court sentenced Ruslan Kutaev to four years of imprisonment in a common-security penal colony.

"We would like to hope for the decision of the second instance: even if not for complete abolition of the Court's decision, then at least for mitigation of a sentence," this hope has been expressed by Tatiana Lokshina, a staff member of the "Human Rights Watch" (HRW).

"The man has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment for his citizenship," the human rights defender has stated.

Igor Kalyapin, Chairman of the human rights organization "Committee against Torture", has said he expected a guilty verdict in the case against Ruslan Kutaev; however, he never thought it would be so severe.

The sentence is obviously connected with social activities of Ruslan Kutaev, since the criminal proceedings were initiated after the human rights defender held a "roundtable" dedicated to the 70^th anniversary of the deportation of the Chechen people. This opinion was expressed by Alexander Cherkasov, Chairman of the Board of the HRC "Memorial".

According to Alexander Cherkasov, the case against Ruslan Kutaev has been fabricated. He believes that fact has been completely proved by the analysis of the indictment made by the defence at the trial.

"Ruslan Kutaev is a new political prisoner," Alexander Cherkasov has stated.