Head of Ingushetia testifies at trial of suspected underground member

On July 18, Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Evkurov was interrogated as a witness at the trial of the 21-year-old alleged member of the armed underground, who last year surrendered in response to Evkurov's persuasion.

Yusuf Mutsolgov, the defendant, a resident of the village of Troitskaya, Sunzha District of Ingushetia, is accused under articles of "attempt on the life of a law enforcer" and "illegal possession of firearms and ammunition". The trial is run with participation of a jury.

"I've received an appeal from the court to appear and get questioned at the trial as a witness. I came there, reported as a schoolboy at exams, answered all the questions of the defence and the prosecution, since the judges are the law; and we're all equal before it," said Evkurov after the end of the judicial session at the Supreme Court of Ingushetia.

During the trial the Ingush leader said, when answering the questions of the prosecution, that as part of the undertaken preventive work with the relatives whose family members found themselves among members of illegal armed formations and their accomplices, he had met several times with the defendant and his mother and asked the young man not to follow his brothers, one of whom was killed during a special operation, and the other was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment.

"We've intervened in the trial and did everything to save the life of the young man," the "Interfax" quotes Mr Evkurov as saying.

He once again urged young militants to abandon a life of crime and surrender to the justice. "I urge our young people, all those involved in illegal actions – stop please. Don't be afraid; nobody will be tortured and humiliated; don't be afraid of these things; I show it all by examples," Yunus-Bek Evkurov said at the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, the "RIA Novosti" reports.