19 July 2018, 19:36
Titiev's trial launched despite advocate's absence
Today, the state prosecutor has persuaded the Shali City Court to start trying Oyub Titiev in the absence of Ilya Novikov, one of the defenders.
Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", was arrested on January 11 on charges of possessing marijuana. He pleaded not guilty and stated that the drugs had been planted on him.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that yesterday, on July 18, the Shali City Court agreed to postpone the session till today after Titiev's defence declared that the absence of Ilya Novikov was a violation of Titiev's right to defence. Novikov is busy in another trial and did not expect that the Titiev's one would start without the consideration by the Russia's Supreme Court of the complaint about the change of the territorial jurisdiction of the case, the defenders have explained.
The advocate Ilya Novikov has failed to appear at the today's session of the Shali City Court; and the judge read out his petition to postpone the session, as Novikov is engaged in another trial and was not able to fly to Grozny today, the press service of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has reported.
The prosecutor found the petition unjustified, since, in her opinion, the delay would protract the consideration of the case. After that, the judge decided to continue the session.
"If Novikov wants to question witnesses, he will be able to ask for a repeated interrogation," reads the statement posted in the HRC's Telegram channel.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 19, 2018 at 12:16 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
