In Oyub Titiev's case, six witnesses fail to describe his detention

At the today's hearing at the Shali City Court in the Oyub Titiev's case, the Court has questioned six policemen witnesses, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports, which has arranged text broadcast of the court hearing on its Telegram channel.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 22, Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", was arrested on charges of possessing marijuana. He pleaded not guilty and stated that the drugs had been planted on him.

Today, all six witnesses failed to report to the Court any significant information about the events on January 9, when Oyub Titiev was arrested. According to the testimonies of the witnesses, none of them took part in the Oyub Titiev's detention. In fact, the witnesses answered: "I do not remember" or, occasionally, "I do not know" to almost all questions voiced by the defence.

During the court hearing, it became clear that one of the witnesses, a member of a territorial police station, did not speak Russian. When asked by the judge if he needed an interpreter, the witness said: "I do not remember," and the Court invited an interpreter for him.

Meanwhile, according to a protocol of the witness interrogation during the preliminary investigation, the above witness testified in Russian, although at the trial, he did not understand the advocate's questions without interpretation.

All the witnesses testified that they were not acquainted with Oyub Titiev. The defendant himself pointed out that at least one of the witnesses was well acquainted with him, since he was his relative.

The prosecution witnesses questioned today have no idea about the circumstances of the case and are in fact no witnesses, stated lawyer Galina Tarasova, a coordinator of the "Hot Spots" project of the HRC "Memorial".

"They are policemen who are not aware about the circumstances of the Oyub Titiev's detention. Some of them work at the police station of the Yalkhoi-Mokhk village, 20 kilometres from the place where Oyub Titiev had been detained. With the same result, prosecutors could summon as witnesses some policemen from Kamchatka," noted Galina Tarasova as quoted by the website of the HRC "Memorial".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 19, 2018 at 07:38 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.