Other three defendants in case of caliphate claim being tortured during interrogations

Akhmed Balkarov, Ruslan Kipshiev, and Ruslan Zhugov, accused in the case of an attempt to create a caliphate in Kabardino-Balkaria, have retracted at the trial their confessions and claimed that they made them under torture, to which they were subjected after being detained by law enforcers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at court hearings held on March 28-30, Oleg Miskhozhev, whom the investigators believe to be the amir of the grouping, Arthur Karov, and Zaur Teevozhev explained the retractions of their confessions by their torture. The court obliged the Prosecutor's Office to check those complaints.

On March 31, at a hearing of the North-Caucasian   District Military Court, defendant Akhmed Balkarov also claimed being tortured.

"No, I did not testify, and I did not read what I was signing. I was forced to put my signatures, while I was tortured with electric current. When they were transporting me, they put a black plastic bag on my head. At office, they put me on a chair and wrapped sticky tape around my body. They connected two wires to my hands and tortured me with electric current for 15 minutes," said Akhmed Balkarov.

Defendant Ruslan Kipshiev has refused to testify. He has claimed that he does not admit his guilt in any part, that he "did not give such a confession and did not sign it on his own will."

Timur Lakunov, an advocate of Ruslan Kipshiev, has requested the Court to read out two interrogation protocols in which his client stated that he did not admit his guilt and called the earlier confession made "under the influence of law enforcers." "Even if I wanted to change the constitutional order, I could not do that," the defendant allegedly states in the document.

Ruslan Zhugov has also claimed that he pleads not guilty.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.