Dagestan court has considered the legitimacy of a new case against human rights activist Boliev

On Friday 23 June, the Khasavyurt town court of Dagestan considered the issue of the legitimacy of initiation by Khasavyurt department of internal affairs of a new criminal case against Osman Boliev, leader of the local human rights organization "Romashka" charged with acquisition, storage and carrying of fire arms and participation in an illegal armed unit. The judge heard the parties and "adjourned to deliberate." He is going to announce his decision today, 26 June, reports Salimat Kadyrova, O. Boliev's lawyer, to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"In the course of consideration of the defence complaint, no materials justifying the legitimacy of initiation of a criminal case have been submitted by the prosecutor's office. The only ground was the report of Sh. Niyazbiev, criminal investigation officer of Khasavyurt town department of internal affairs, on revealing elements of crime in the Boliev's activity. This document is based on field reports of a person under a pseudonym who, according to investigation officer N. Gairbiev, "has not been declassified yet,"" says S. Kadyrova who attended the hearing of Khasavyurt town court.

According to the lawyer, major Gairbiev demonstrated to the court a sealed envelop claiming that it contains the Niyazbiev's report but, due to "secrecy," even the judge was not shown the contents of the envelop. The prosecutor's office representative declared that he regarded the ruling on initiating criminal proceedings as legitimate, however, he failed to provide appropriate arguments.

"I stated in the court that no check of the report on revealing elements of crime had been done and Boliev himself had not been interrogated. Under the law, if someone calls him criminal he should be at least questioned. The suspect could submit evidence fully disproving his involvement in the crime he is charged with. When I asked "why Boliev has not been interrogated," the investigator answered that he had sent an officer of the criminal investigation department to look for him but the latter claimed the man had not been at home," says Kadyrova.

The suspect's representatives submitted to the court copies of complaints of Sergei Brovchenko, Moscow lawyer, requesting that Khasavyurt militia officers should be held responsible for fabricating the previous criminal case and torturing Osman Boliev, and magistrate Bitarov for falsifying an order for his arrest. The defence lawyers expressed an opinion that the said complaints had served as a pretext for initiating the new criminal proceedings aimed at forcing Boliev to drop his request for punishing the militiamen and the judge.

"On 09.06.2006, Niyazbiev Sh. U., senior investigation officer of the criminal investigation unit of Khasavyurt department of internal affairs, submitted a report on revealing elements of crime in the activity of Boliev Osman Ranzanovich, which fall under articles 208, para. 2, and 222, para. 1 of the RF CC. From the available materials, it may be concluded that in summer 2000 Boliev O. R. illegally acquired firearms, i.e. Kalashnikov gun, and joined an illegal armed unit dislocated in the city of Grozny, Chechen Republic," runs the decision on the initiation of criminal proceedings passed on June 11 by major N. Gairbiev, senior investigation officer of the criminal investigation unit in Khasavyurt. A copy of the decision has been passed by the defendant to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Osman Boliev stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he denied the charges against him. According to him, he had never bought any gun, that in 2000 he had been working in Khasavyurt and never left the town, which could be confirmed by a lot of witnesses.

Quite recently, Osman Boliev has already been charged with illegal acquisition, storage and carrying of firearms, and on May 18 of this year he was fully acquitted by the Khasavyurt town court. The town prosecutor's office disagreed with the court acquittal and appealed against the ruling. No consideration of the state prosecution cassation protest by the Dagestan Supreme Court has been appointed yet.

"To acquit... due to defendant's non-implication in the crime... The material evidence, i.e. RGN grenade (without a fuse), shall be destroyed upon the ruling coming into force, " runs the court ruling on O. Boliev, the full text of which was published by "Caucasian Knot" on May 30.

Even before the ruling was announced, Osman Boliev and Sergei Brovchenko, his lawyer, had applied to the RF General Prosecutor's office, the prosecutor's office of the republic of Dagestan, the Supreme Court and the judicial qualification chamber of Dagestan with a request to bring the magistrate of section No. 35 of Khasavyurt, who had falsified the decision with regard to Boliev, to criminal and disciplinary responsibility. They had also launched an appeal to the town prosecutor against the decision to decline the initiation of a criminal case on torture of Osman Boliev described in the article by Anna Politkovskaya in the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper in February this year.

For reference, on November 15, 2005, Osman Boliev, resident of Khasavyurt, stood by his brother's car parked near his house. He was approached by traffic militiamen who, claiming that the Boliev's car resembled a car reported to be stolen, suggested that he should follow them to the militia station for checking. Boliev took the wheel to follow the traffic militia car in the direction of the local unit of internal affairs. However, on the way there the Boliev's car was stopped by soldiers of the RF MIA mobile investigation squad. The traffic militia officers handed Boliev over to the mobile squad militiamen and drove off. In their turn, the latter placed O. Boliev into their car, put a sack over his head, handcuffed him and took him to the Khasavyurt department of internal affairs. According to the human rights activist, while in militia, they had been torturing him for several hours, then searched him and "discovered" a dismantled grenade on him.

Initially, they tried to charge Boliev with involvement in an illegal armed unit. On November 16, 2005, already the next day following the arrest, the "Dagestan" news agency, citing the Dagestan MIA press-service, reported that O. Boliev, active participant of illegal armed units, had been detained in Khasavyurt. According to law enforcement agencies, he was member of the group of Abdulsheikhov Arslanbek killed in Moscow's "Nord-Ost" theatre in 2003. The report also ran that security agencies possessed information on the detainee's involvement in combat actions against federal forces on the territory of the Chechen Republic and that during arrest of the "militant," "an RGD-5 grenade with a fuse was found on him and confiscated."

"Boliev was searched not on the spot of the arrest but in the department of internal affairs building. Logically thinking, when following the traffic militia car, Boliev could have easily got rid of the grenade parts, but he did not do this, stated the "Public Verdict" foundation. The documents submitted to the prosecutor's office for the initiation of criminal proceedings lacked the grenade description, interrogations of the witnesses who attended the search (the interrogation materials were submitted only a few days later), and the materials of the administrative detention." Notably, while the investigator of the Boliev's case sent an GRD-5 grenade for expert examination, the expert returned his opinion on the "RGN (Afghani) grenade." Lawyer Salimat Kadyrova, while talking to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, assumed that the grenade had been changed due to the fact that it had already been "exposed" somewhere.

A number of experts think that the main cause of the Boliev's detention and 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 the fragment of a large-calibre shell. A complaint on the case was also filed in the European Court.

The "Memorial" human rights centre stated on March 16 that "the criminal prosecution of Osman Boliev in Dagestan is clearly politically motivated." In their open letter to the Dagestan prosecutor, the International Helsinki Federation, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Moscow Helsinki Group demanded: "The charges against Mr. Boliev should be dropped and criminal investigation must be initiated with regard to the acts of local law enforcement agencies in this outrageous case."