Trial against Oyub Titiyev: Day 23rd

He noted that under conditions of constant surveillance by the local authorities, it would be foolish to carry drugs in his car. He recalled two episodes of drugs being planted onto Ruslan Kutaev and Zhalaudi Geriev, two critics of the regime.

On November 20, 2018, the trial of Oyub Titiyev continued in the Shali City Court of Chechnya. During the trial, questioning of Oyub Titiyev was completed.

Judge Madina Zainetdinova is presiding over the case. Three lawyers, Peter Zaikin, Marina Dubrovina and Ilya Novikov, made up the defense team for Titiyev. 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.

In the court were Svetlana Gannushkina, a member of the Board of the Memorial Human Rights Center and chairman of the Civic Assistance Committee, Ales Belyatsky and Sergei Sys, from human rights center «Viasna», Belarus, Oyub Titiyev’s relatives and neighbors. Ales Belyatsky is the winner of the Vaclav Havel Prize, which Oyub was awarded this year. He served a sentence in Belarus in 2011–2014 on fabricated charges.

During the proceedings, the questioning of Oyub Titiyev continued. Defense team lawyer, Novikov, asked him to talk about his work as well as threats and surveillance that he underwent. Oyub Titiyev noted that in his 18 years of work, there were many instances of threats or other inappropriate behavior towards him and that he cannot remember each one.

At the end of 2014 there was an attack on the office in Gudermes. The office had three employees — two lawyers and one manager. In the evening, seven young men in masks broke in and threw eggs at two women. The attack was reported to the police, but Oyub arrived at the office from Grozny faster than the local police. The police inspected the place, collected eggs and egg shells and left. Results of the inspection have not yet been revealed. Oyub connects this attack with the authorities. Two or three months after the attack, the office was closed.
Oyub said that there were any threats, including in the media. They discussed the threats with colleagues in the Grozny office. An internal security protocol was developed and adopted, to which Memorial staff complied. The protocol included measures relating to transport. The car had a special tracker in it so that employees could track the car’s location. After Oyub’s arrest, equipment was stolen. Rules of conduct were also developed in the event of detention, but Oyub noted that on January 9 it was difficult to follow the protocol due to the harsh conditions.

Investigator Salamov first officially announced that Oyub had been arrested around 7:55 pm. Until then, no one announced his arrest. But it was much earlier in the day, as early as 9:05, that Oyub was actually deprived of his liberty and was under the control of the security officials. He believed that he was under threat of physical violence if he did not obey them.

On January 12, Oyub wrote a statement stating that he does not plead guilty, and if he recognizes guilt in any way, it will mean that he was forced to incriminate himself by physical threat or blackmail. Oyub noted that there were grounds for such a statement, but he refused to give details, because of a promise he had made to someone else.

At the request of Novikov, Oyub talks about his life before Memorial: he served in the army, studied, and was practiced boxing. He has almost always done sport with the only exceptions being during the first war and the active phase of the second war.

Then came Memorial and Civic Assistance and a project in the mountainous regions of Chechnya. In the Nozhai-Yurt district, 22 schools were equipped with everything they needed — a library, equipment, and even musical instruments. At that time the inhabitants of the village of Zumsoi asked for help: he bought cows and a tractor to 17 or 18 families.

Previously, hundreds of people turned to Memorial for help, but in the last five to six years there have been significantly fewer applications for help due to pressure from security forces. Sometimes people applied but then returned to retrieve their applications for some reason. Memorial provided free legal assistance and argued cases at the European Court of Human Rights. It is difficult to say how many people have been helped during this time, certainly thousands.

Last year, Oyub worked with relatives of those missing and or presumed dead in the «27 Case." Oyub took the applications from people, gave them to colleagues, collected information, some of which was kept on site while others was kept in the archive.

Oyub noted further that he is a deeply religious man. Drugs and alcohol are prohibited by Islam and he does not even communicate with those who use drugs.

Then a question arose about the Oyub’s belongings that disappeared after this arrest. In total, 22 items were mentioned in the application addressed to investigator Khadukayev, but he could have forgotten some things. The most important thing, according to Oyub, is a pistol, telephones, a tablet, a stun gun, a camera, a voice recorder, and keys. Prior to see the case documents, Oyub expected that all the items seized from him would be among the material evidence, but they were not there and on May 16, immediately after reviewing the material evidence, Oyub filed an application for investigation into these lost items. However, there was no review of his application for investigation of his lost things.

Then Oyub Titiyev talked about the work of the consolidated mobile group (SMG) of human rights activists in Chechnya, which was created after the murder of Natalia Estemirova, about the arson attack on the SMG office, and about how the SMG stopped working in Chechnya after the attack on I. Kalyapin in Grozny.

The lawyer Novikov noted that Oyub Titiyev is actually accused of carrying illegal goods with him while being negligent and not waiting for a police check.

Oyub explained that he had never thought lightly about security issues and, of course, at that moment was not sure of his safety, and that in such a situation it would be silly to carry a bag of drugs in a car.

It is impossible to get from Kurchaloy to Grozny without passing through checkpoints, and fellow residents told Oyub that on January 9, the rapid response units (RRU) were at all exits. Oyub concludes that there was a plan to detain him that day and, apparently, each group of the RRU had bags of drugs to plant. Oyub brought up the cases of Ruslan Kutaev and Zhalaudi Geriev, who also had drugs planted on them. According to Oyub, the shameful accusation that he was charged with is aimed at discrediting human rights work in Chechnya and forcing Memorial to close its representative office in the Republic. The latter was achieved — after the arrest of Oyub, the office was closed.

At the same time, not a single head of the local human rights organizations said a word in support of Oyub nor was there a single letter calling out the authorities sent.

Dubrovin reads Oyub’s petition to include in the case file the text of Magomed Daudov’s speech, a statement that Oleg Orlov wanted to read but was forbidden from reading during his questioning.

Prosecutors Baytaeva and Akhmatov were opposed. In their opinion, the statement does not concern the case in question as the last name «Tityiev» is not mentioned there.

The lawyer Novikov objected that Daudov’s statement was the trigger for the operation against Oyub Titiyev. In addition, Titiyev, knowing about this statement and taking into account the situation that had developed surrounding Memorial around the end of 2017, expected the object of close surveillance of law enforcement agencies.

Zaynetdinova refuses on the grounds that the last name «Titiyev» does not appear there, Titiyev himself claimed that he had nothing to do with the Western special services, and the financing of the organization was transparent.

A recess was announced for the State Prosecution to prepare for the questioning of Oyub Titiyev.

After the break, the defense filed a petition to release Oyub on bond. Svetlana Alekseevna Gannushkina and Grigory Alekseevich Yavlinsky acted as guarantors.

Svetlana Gannushkina said that she knew Oyub since 2001, worked with him at the Civic Assistance Committee and Memorial. According to her, Oyub is a reliable and honest person. She spoke about a project on which Oyub worked to help residents of Chechnya serving a sentence outside the country. In addition, Gannushkina noted, Oyub more than once left Russia and could have stayed abroad, but did not.

«He will not go anywhere. This is his work. He will come to court and will finish this work," Svetlana Gannushkina said.

Advocate Zaikin, supporting the petition, noted that the case documents are in the court’s possession and all of the witnesses have already been questioned, thereby refuting the State Prosecution’s claim that Oyub will be able to put pressure on them.

Advocate Novikov added that all previous arrests were done on the same legal grounds. Now the circumstances have changed and the defense is waiting for a new rationale. In addition, Novikov noted, when making a decision the court should take into account Art. 5 (Right to liberty and security of person) and Art. 8 (Right to respect for private and family life) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The state prosecution asked for time to prepare a position on the petition.

The next hearing is scheduled for November 26, 2018.