Litigation on slandering Kadyrov turns to debate stage

The judicial investigatory on the criminal case against the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" Oleg Orlov, accused of slandering the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov is over. The trial is entering the stage of debates; the start thereof is scheduled for June 9.

Court rejects all new parties' petitions

At the end of the interrogation of witnesses, the judge invited the parties to present their final petitions, if any, before the end of the judicial investigatory.

Two motions were moved by the Orlov's party. The first motion of his defence demanded to add the official paper of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), saying that in the Chechen Republic cases are protracted and badly investigated by local law enforcers on kidnappings and other violations of civil rights of the local population, to the case files.

The second petition, moved by Genry Reznik, Mr Orlov's advocate, asked to add to the case files the materials of Chechen media, accompanied by a certified translation from the Chechen into the Russian language, made by a licensed Moscow company, of the transcripts of the utterances of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, where he stated his full responsibility for everything that happens in the Chechen Republic.

These petitions caused a protest of the state prosecutor, who argued that the paper of the ICRF was dated much later than the start of the current litigation. The second petition, according to the state prosecutor, was also invalid for attaching to the case files, because "there is no assurance from where Orlov took the document; and the fact of extraction was not fixed. Andrei Krasnenkov, who is representing Ramzan Kadyrov at the trial, joined the opinion of the state prosecutor.

With account the views of the parties the judge rejected both motions of Oleg Orlov's defence.

On his part, Andrei Krasnenkov moved five petitions.

The first one asked to add to the case files the "service memo", sent by Deputy Mayor of Grozny Salavdi Dzhamiev to the Grozny Mayor Muslim Khuchiev that Estemirova refused to work in the position of the Chair of the Public Board at the Grozny Mayoralty.

The state prosecutor objected to the petition, because the document had no attributes of state business correspondence - the incoming number and seal or stamp, and because the author of the memo had already been interrogated in court. The defence of Oleg Orlov supported the state prosecution. "This is a rare case where I fully support the state prosecution," said Oleg Orlov. The judge denied Andrei Krasnenkov's motion.

His second petition asked to add to the case files the excerpt from the minutes of the sitting of the Public Board at the Mayoralty of Grozny on March 28, 2008. The representative of the head of Chechnya failed to confirm at the trial and provide the court with a properly completed petition; and the judge rejected it either.

The third Krasnenkov's petition concerned the article of the "Grozny Inform" Agency describing the meeting of the head of Grozny with Svetlana Gannushkina in 2008. The court rejected the petition, with account of the opinions of the parties, as irrelevant to the case.

His fourth petition asked to add to the case files Andrei Krasnenkov's opinion on Oleg Orlov's cassation on the civil suit. In his opinion, Mr Krasnenkov expresses his opinion about the work of the HRC "Memorial", Natalia Estemirova, Oleg Orlov and other employees of the organization. He argued that earlier the court had added to the case the "fabricated", according to his story, by the "Memorial" the video report of Ramzan Kadyrov's meeting with human rights defenders.

The defendant and the state prosecutor agreed that this opinion is Andrei Krasnenkov's personal view on another trial and has no relation to this case; therefore, the court dismissed this petition.

His fifth petition was on adduction to this case of the protocol of the session on the civil suit against Oleg Orlov. The prosecutor again objected, citing that the document was irrelevant to this case. The judge reminded the prosecutor that she and Ramzan Kadyrov's representative were "on one and the same side of the process"; however the prosecutor did not change her opinion.

Genry Reznik reminded that these papers had already been attached to the case files in full. Andrei Krasnenkov tried to withdraw his last petition, arguing that the case lasted too long, and he began to forget about the earlier attached papers; however, the court rejected his petition.

After asking the parties and seeing that they have no more petitions, the judge announced the end of the judicial investigatory and switchover to the stage of debates, appointing its start on June 9 at 11:00 a.m. Moscow time.

Orlov: prosecution lacks evidence 

After the session, Andrei Krasnenkov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he did not agree with the judge on her refusal to adduct his petitions. "For some reason earlier the judge adducted one of the materials of 'Grozny-Inform' without a problem. Now, a similar petition was dismissed. I think they just didn't want to start another volume on the case. I don't understand the position of the court on this issue," he said.

Oleg Orlov said that reduction of the judicial investigatory to discussing Natalia Estemirova's personality means absence of evidence about slander of Ramzan Kadyrov. "It is clear that opponents lack evidence. They just need to create a negative context around the 'Memorial'," Oleg Orlov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Svetlana Gannushkina agreed with him: "Apparently, the prosecution has no proofs of Oleg Orlov's slandering Kadyrov; and they come out of the situation in the most vulgar way - they try to denigrate the person of Natasha Estemirova."