In Dagestan, at the trial of human rights activist Boliev, defence evidences were presented

In Dagestan, in the town of Khasavyurt, the trial continues on the case of Osman Boliev, human rights activist, head of the Dagestan regional public organization "Romashka," accused of storage, acquisition and bearing of firearms. Starting from April 19, the defence is presenting its evidences at the proceedings.

Salimat Kadyrova, defendant's advocate, told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" that yesterday, on April 20, the court interrogated almost all the defence witnesses and the defendant himself. Responses to the defence requests were attached to the case.

Thus, the response to the request of the magistrate judge of the section, to which the Boliev's detention place refers, runs that in the period from November 15 to December 16, 2005, no administrative case was considered by the magistrate court in relation to Osman Boliev. The prosecutor, in the words of Kadyrova, earlier presented a resolution of the magistrate judge dated November 16 last year, according to which O. Boliev was awarded two days of arrest for disobedience to militiamen. Boliev himself evidenced that he was not taken to court for consideration of the materials of the administrative offence case, and he did not know about the existence of such resolution. The advocate concludes here that the resolution of the magistrate court on Boliev's arrest was faked or, at least, illegal, since it was made in the absence of Boliev and without notifying him. The certificate from the magistrate court was signed by the judge who substituted, on the date of answering the request of December 16, his colleague, who allegedly considered the Boliev's administrative case.

Yesterday, the court also announced a certificate from the Khasavyurt GOVD (City Militia Headquarters) that Boliev was put into the Temporary Isolation Custody (TIC) of the Department at 5 p.m. on November 17, 2005, and was kept there till November 23. "The criminal case file has a protocol of administrative detainment stating that the defendant was detained on November 15. Advocate Sergey Brovchenko presented to the court a similar response from the Investigation Isolation Custody Facility ("SIZO") of Khasavyurt, which runs that Osman Boliev arrived there on November 23, 2005, and, under the personal file data, he was detained at 5 p.m. on November 15. A question arises, where was he kept for two days? Why wasn't he put into the TIC, as it should be?" Kadyrova asked.

"Boliev explained, answering the defence question asked at the trial on where he was kept in the period from November 15 to 17, 2005, that he was kept in different studies of the City Militia Headquarter, he was chained with handcuffs to the heating radiator, and they gave him no food, only water. According to his words, on November 16, his relatives brought him some food but he was not able to eat it. He was handcuffed on November 15, right after detainment, and the cuffs were taken off only on November 17, when he was taken to the prosecutor's office. The prosecutor's office first made a resolution to refuse to initiate a criminal case, since the documents required by the law were missing: explanations, materials on administrative offence, etc. The prosecutor's office gave its consent to open the case only after deputy prosecutor Saidulla Batalov talked to Boliev personally, in the presence of Bulat Dadaev, investigator of the GOVD," Salimat Kadyrova told.

Besides, the state prosecutor (accuser) yesterday presented to the court the resolution of the prosecutor's office of Khasavyurt dated February 14 on refusal to initiate a criminal case on the fact of application to Boliev of illegal methods of investigation, abuse of service duties (i.e. tortures) by militiamen. The check, in the advocate's words, was held upon commission of the prosecutor's office of Dagestan in connection with publication on February 2 this year in "Novaya Gazeta" of Anna Politkovskaya's article "Militia Disliked the Human Rights Activist's Detonator," where she told about tortures in relation to Osman Boliev. "Both Boliev and his advocates heard about this resolution for the first time, although the RF Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) requires that the defence and the defendant must be informed about such decisions," S. Kadyrova told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot."

On Thursday, on the part of defence, a witness was interrogated, an occasional passer-by, who told that he saw on November 15 in the vicinity of an old auto station of Khasavyurt, from the distance of about 20 metres, a passenger car model VAZ 2107 ("Zhiguli"), white colour, stop behind a car model VAZ 21099 (in this car GIBDD inspectors came to O. Boliev's house) close to militia UAZ minivan. In the words of the witness, a militiaman came up to "Zhiguli" Model 7 (VAZ 2107), then Boliev got out of the car, and militiamen searched him (patted him accordingly on pockets and clothes). Then, the militiaman invited him with a characteristic gesture to get into their UAZ car, which by that time came closer and stopped in the place of the VAZ 21099 car which had left by that time. Osman Boliev got into the militia UAZ van, and it departed in the direction to the GOVD, while Boliev's "Zhiguli" remained on the road. The witness could not hear the conversation between the militia workers and the defendant, but he evidenced that externally it looked friendly. It did not look like Boliev exhibiting disobedience to militiamen, he did not try to escape and calmly sat into their car. "Thus, the witness refuted the evidences of Captains Shamber and Novitskiy who said that they had detained Boliev because his behaviour was suspicious, exhibited disobedience and tried to run away from them," the defendant's advocate concludes.

Inspector GIBDD N. Balagajiev, interrogated on April 19 in the court, evidenced, in the words of Salimat Kadyrova, that the GIBDD of Khasavyurt had a "signal" that a car of the same model and with a similar number plate as the one near Boliev's home, was registered as hijacked. The inspector said that when passing beside the defendant's house about 2 p.m. on November 15 last year, road l police inspectors saw a car that looked like the one indicated in the "signal." The offered O. Boliev, who was at that moment washing the car to follow them in it to the City Militia Headquarter. According to the GIBDD employee, Boliev agreed, he behaved calmly, dropped in home, went out redressed, took the car and followed their car towards the GOVD. In the vicinity of the old auto station, the GIBDD workers, as Balagajiev told the court, allegedly lost sight of Boliev, and they continued their way to the militia station, supposing that he got there ahead of them. At the GOVD, they did not find Boliev and moved back to search for him, but did not reach the old auto station and returned back to militia, where they learnt that Boliev had already been brought there by the fighters of the mobile detachment of the RF MIA for an administrative offence; then they left on their business. To the question of advocate Kadyrova why the inspectors after Boliev had been detained "forgot" to examine his car, N. Balagajiev answered: "Why the car, when Boliev was detained, he was its owner." "The car, by the way, belongs not to Osman Boliev but to his brother Ruslan, and the GIBDD employees knew that when at the Osman's house, where he showed them all the documents on the car. Moreover, the documents remained with the inspectors, which is confirmed by evidences of other witnesses," the advocate said.

Boliev's mother evidenced yesterday in the court that the jacket, in the pockets of which the grenade was allegedly later detected, had been washed two days before the incident and was drying. When Boliev was about to go with the GIBDD workers, he went out in a sweater, then mother checked whether the coat was dry, and touched in particular the pockets. In mother's words, the pockets were empty. This fact was also confirmed by Osman's wife.

At the session on Thursday, it also became clear that on that very day in the morning, before arrival of the GIBDD inspectors, another militiaman came to his house. The defendant's wife talked to him. The militiaman was in uniform, but he did not present himself and asked for Osman. She said that he was absent, not wanting to wake him up, as on the day before O. Boliev was very tired doing housework. The militiaman got into the house and kept asking where Osman Boliev was, where he was registered, looked into the house registration logbook. To the questions of the spouse, what he needed him for and what to tell her husband, he answered that wanted to talk to him personally.

Also, the court interrogated local resident Yaraly Israilov, who was kidnapped in 2004 by militiamen and whom Boliev helped to apply to the European Court for Human Rights. According to Ya. Israilov, his detainment was performed by employees of the Khasavyurt GOVD, Chechen militia and "attached forces" from other regions of Russia. He told that Boliev rendered help to him and other victims of militia voluntarism. The Judge permanently interrupted his presentation, made remarks that his words have nothing to do with the considered criminal case. The representative of state accusation also expressed his dissatisfaction with Israilov's story. "We petitioned on summoning Israilov to the court in order to demonstrate the connection between Boliev's human rights activities and the falsified criminal case against him," Kadyrova explained.

The operations officer on duty of the GOVD of Khasavyurt who was at work on the day of detainment of the head of "Romashka" confirmed that his duties include to observe what is happening in the interior department, not to let strangers in, that all the detainees are kept properly for Temporary Isolation Custody. Meanwhile, to the questions where Boliev was after bringing to the department, he answered that he remembered nothing.

The session of the court examined the logbook for registration offences of the GOVD of Khasavyurt. The logbook runs that on November 16, 2005, at 6:20 a.m. a message was registered that at a personal search a grenade was found on Boliev. "We have also lodged a petition about examining in the court of the same logbook for December, and also of the logbook for registration offences and offenders, to make a check of the presence or absence of an entry in it about detection of the offence elements in the actions of an unidentified person, who had allegedly sold a grenade to Boliev, since in relation to this person the investigation body started separate proceedings. We doubt that this criminal case was ever opened. The state prosecutor resolutely objected against satisfaction of this petition and proposed to resort to the registration logbook of criminal cases of the prosecutor's office, initiation of which was sanctioned by the prosecutor," the defender told.

"We have additionally lodged petitions on studying the logbook of deployment of GOVD forces and means to clarify, who started the work of operative on duty officer, and who replaced inspector Umarov for work with detainees on November 16, 2005, to summon them for evidencing at the court," Salimat Kadyrova says about her future actions under the criminal process.

We remind you that Osman Boliev was detained on November 15, 2005, by GIBDD members under the pretext of checking the information about his car, which looked, in the words of road police inspectors, like the one registered as hijacked. However, on the way to the Khasavyurt militia station, Boliev's car was stopped by the fighters of the mobile detachment of the RF MIA for operative and search activities. In the version of the defence, the GIBDD workers handed Boliev over to the fighters of the mobile detachment and left. The latter, in their turn, put O. Boliev into their car, put, according to his story, a bag over his head, handcuffed and brought Boliev to the Interior Department of Khasavyurt. According to the human rights activist, in militia, he was tortured for several hours, and then searched, and a grenade was allegedly found on him.

In the opinion of a number of experts, the pretext for Boliev's detention and accusation was his human rights activity. The Human Rights Centre "Memorial" declared on March 16 that the "criminal prosecution in Dagestan of Osman Boliev has clearly expressed political motives."