Gannushkina: acquittal of Nazir Guliev is illegal

As stated today by Svetlana Gannushkina, Chair of the Committee "Civil Assistance", at a press conference in Moscow, the acquitting verdict passed to Nazir Guliev, a former employee of the Ingush MIA, is illegitimate. According to her version, Guliev should have not been acquitted and released from liability.

The above press conference on the topic "Half-Justice: First Sentence on Torture in Ingush Police" was held today. It was attended by Svetlana Gannushkina, Chair of the Committee "Civil Assistance" and a member of the Board of the HRC "Memorial", her deputy Elena Burtina, Toma Tsegocheva, the lawyer of the victim Chitigov, and the latter's mother Zukhra Chitigova.

With the support of human rights defenders Zelimkhan Chitigov was transferred to Moscow after torture, his mother Zukhra Chitigova has recalled. According to her story, the doctors of the Botkin Hospital had "literally made a miracle." "They put him back on his feet; his speech and intellect have fully recovered," said Chitigov.

According to rights activists, the acquittal of Nazir Guliev "is unfair and customized" and looks "like an obvious nonsense and suggests an external influence on the court."

Ms Gannushkina said that until now the suffered party has no copy of the verdict. "Not only that the sentence had been written from July to November, but the injured party still has no verdict in hand. So talking about its legality or illegality is difficult," said Gannushkina.

She believes that the verdict to Nalgiev was lawful, while the verdict to Guliev was not.

She was also alarmed with the court decision on Guliev's right to rehabilitation. "I'm very worried about the right to rehabilitation, because Guliev will be able to get back to work; and imagine what would happen to people who occur under his command," said Gannushkina.

According to Elena Burtina, Gannushkina's deputy, a number of factors had helped to bring the case to the verdict.

"Firstly, a unique case, where the tortured young hadn't succumbed to pressure and signed nothing. Usually, such people are just killed. But this time, for some reason, it was not done – this is secondly. Thirdly, from the court he got not to jail, but to hospital; in jail he wouldn't survive; there, the work of those who 'treated' Chitigov at the police station would have been completed," Ms Burtina has given her viewpoint.

Another factor mentioned by her was the courage of Chitigov's mother, who had refused to recall her application about kidnapping of her son from the police. "The verdict was accusatory to Nalgiev, because the case was broadly covered by media and human rights circles," said Burtina.

As for the sentence to Guliev, she treated it as at least strange. "It's clear that the boss was aware of the crimes of his subordinate. With Nalgiev, they were a sort of a tandem in the republic," said Burtina.