Advocate of head of Chechnya moves new motions in case of head of the HRC "Memorial"

Today, at a regular session of the Khamovniki Court of Moscow on the slander case initiated against the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" Oleg Orlov, Andrei Krasnenkov, legal representative of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, has moved a number of new petitions.

Earlier, the parties of the trial and the court had appointed the date of transition to the stage of debates - May 16, after which the court was supposed to pass over to the stage of adjudication.

The today's session was supposed to be, according to Oleg Orlov, "a purely technical process" of adding the petitions moved at the previous session on April 28 to the case files.

However, at today's session, apart from earlier specified petitions, Andrei Krasnenkov, who is representing the head of Chechnya, has moved several new petitions, in particular, on adding to the case the "memo", written by Muslim Khuchiev, Mayor of Grozny, which says, according to Krasnenkov, that rights defender Natalia Estemirova, assassinated in July 2009, had refused herself to work for the Public Board at the Mayoralty of Grozny, referring to her busy schedule and upcoming departure from the territory of the republic.

According to Krasnenkov, the post of the head of the Public Board "had been invented for Estemirova," but she refused to take it. "Besides, she had planned to go abroad on her vacations," he added.

The defendant Oleg Orlov and his advocate Genry Reznik opposed to adding this memo to the case files, referring to the fact that its origin was not established, but left the matter to the judge. The state prosecutor has supported their opinion. The court decided not to add this material to the case files.

Andrei Krasnenkov also petitioned to summon the Mayor of Grozny Muslim Khuchiev to testify before the court, and explained that he had not done it earlier because "he thought that today's trial will be very quick, and witnesses will not have time to evidence."

The state prosecutor has supported the petition. Genry Reznik said that he was not against summoning Khuchiev, but only if Krasnenkov would ensure his appearance at trial.

The latter stated, in his turn, that he would guarantee Khuchiev's appearance to the next session as a witness and added that apart from Khuchiev he would invite "1-2 more persons."

The court has satisfied Krasnenkov's petition on summoning new witnesses.

Oleg Orlov has petitioned to summon Zoya Svetova for evidencing, as she wrote plenty of materials about Estemirova.

The court has satisfied the petition to summon Ms Svetova as a witness for Oleg Orlov's party.

At the end of the session the parties accused each other of deliberate protraction of the litigation.