Hearings on liquidation of BEBP start in Nalchik

Yesterday, on May 20, at the session on the case about liquidation of the Board of Elders of the Balkar People (BEBP), the leaders of this public organization left the hall of the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria in protest. The demarche was caused by rejection of the petition demanding to hold an independent expert's examination of the analytical report "On Situation with Balkars in the KBR (Kabardino-Balkarian Republic)", which had caused the pretext for initiation of the criminal case.

Let us note here that on May 13 the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria restarted the hearings of the case, which was suspended three years ago, about liquidation of the Board of Elders of the Balkar People (BEBP).

"We'll wait for the court decision and appeal against it at the Supreme Court of Russia and specify that none of the arguments, under which the Supreme Court of Russia had cancelled the decision of the Supreme Court of the KBR on liquidation of the organization, wasn't taken into account by the court," Oyus Gurtuev, one of the leaders of the BEBP, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Valery Shukhardin, a lawyer of the human rights organization "For Human Rights", believes that the liquidation case of the BEBP is "under certain control." "In the time of the break, our opponents got prepared and gained support in the form of several enforced judgements," he said.

According to his version, the prosecutor's office refers to the decision of the Nalchik City Court, according to which the above analytical report was recognized as an extremist one. Thus, the lawyer remarks, that decision of the court was based not on the examination but on own court's conclusions.

"We had petitioned before the court about an independent linguistic examination to be held within the litigation, but the court rejected the petition. This time the court shows an obvious bias, and case moves towards closing the organization," said Mr Shukhardin. Therefore, in his opinion, its members made the demarche.