The Shali Court prolonged Titiyev’s detention and continued to review the case materials
Oyub won the award for «Human Rights and the Rule of Law» at a ceremony in Moscow.
December 10 and 11 were the 26th and 27th day of proceedings on the case against Oyub Titiyev, the head of the Grozny office of the Memorial Human Rights Center.
Judge Madina Zainetdinova is presiding over the case. The defense for Titiyev is represented by Pyotr Zaikin, Marina Dubrovina. The prosecution is supported by the prosecutor of the Kurchaloevsky district Dzhabrail Akhmatov and the employee of the republican prosecutor’s office, Milana Baitayeva.
Recall that the head of the Grozny office of the Memorial Human Rights Center, Oyub Titiyev, was detained on January 9, 2018 in Chechnya, allegedly due to the fact that the police discovered a bag of cannabis in his car. A criminal case was opened against Titiyev under Part 2 of Art. 228 of the Criminal Code. Titiyev denies the allegations against him. Memorial claims that the criminal case against him has been falsified. Oyub is recognized as a political prisoner.
On December 10 the judge raised a question on the pretrial detention that expired on December 22. The defense insisted that even the weak arguments that the state prosecution had used in previous extensions had been used-up: all the witnesses had already been interrogated, the case materials had been brought to court, and Titiyev, more than anyone, is interested in establishing the truth of the case. But Zainetdinova did not take the position of the defense and extended Titiyev’s extension for another three months, until March 22, 2019.
On December 11, prosecutor Baitayeva continued to read out the case materials — she read out 148 sheets from the first volume of case materials (from the 79th to the 227thpage). Prosecutor Akhmatov proposed reading only the materials on which the defense had comments. Lawyer Dubrovina answered that this would only be possible if the state prosecution agreed not to refer to unread materials in the debate. In the end, it was decided to read all the documents.
On the evening of December 11, at the residence of the German ambassador in Moscow, Titiyev’s colleagues, Oleg Orlov, and Milana Bahaeva, were given the Franco-German Prize «For Human Rights and Rule of Law» that was awarded to Oyub on November 21. The photos from the ceremony and Memorial’s speeches are posted on the website.
The next hearing on the case will be at 10am on December 17.
