13 March 2018, 13:06
Chechen law enforcers report on drugs found at HRC "Memorial" office
On March 12, an advocate of Oyub Titiev announced that the police came to the conclusion that the cigarettes found during a search in the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" contained marijuana. The advocate questioned the conclusions made by the experts.
On January 11, the court ruled to place head of 'Memorial' Chechen office Oyub Titiev into custody for two months on charges of possessing marijuana. Titiev claims that the drug was planted on him by a law enforcer. He told his advocate that law enforcers had forced him into self-incrimination and threatened to bring criminal cases against his relatives on promoting terrorism.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 19, policemen searched the office of the HRC "Memorial" in Grozny and found an ashtray and cigarettes that were never there before, the rights defender stated.
An expert from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for Chechnya came to the conclusion that two self-made cigarettes found during the search at a balcony of the HRC "Memorial" office contained marijuana, reported Pyotr Zaikin, an advocate of Oyub Titiev.
According to the advocate, the above expert's conclusion was became known two weeks ago, the "Mediazona" reported on March 12.
The advocate noted that the self-made cigarettes were found "fresh and undamaged," despite the fact that the balcony was open and on the day of the search it was raining with snow, the "Mediazona" reports.
There are no smokers among the employees of the HRC "Memorial" in Grozny, and only visiting journalists went out to the balcony for smoking. They placed ash and cigarette butts inside paper bags and then threw them down, the HRC "Memorial" announced on January 19.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.
