In Dagestan, violations of citizens' rights for defence become systematic

Community of advocates of Dagestan claims that citizens' rights for defence are systematically violated in the republic. The investigating and law enforcement bodies prevent advocates' visit to persons under investigation, the investigating practice more often includes torture, and, in fact, the procedural equality of parties, declared in the law, is not respected. This was stated by participants of the press conference in the Advocates' Chamber of the Republic of Dagestan.

On July 31, the press conference was held, and it was attended by 12 lawyers from Makhachkala and Kizilyurt, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Boris Aguzov, President of the Advocates' Chamber of Dagestan, mentioned the typical violations of the rights of persons under investigation for defence: prevention of advocates' visits, pressure waiver of hired advocates, hiding places of detention of suspects and defendants from their relatives and defenders, use of torture and violence against suspects.

Boris Aguzov also raised the issue of safety of advocates. He mentioned the All-Russian statistics: over the last five years, 17 advocates were killed by criminals. Only in 2011 and 2012, eight advocates were killed.

Boris Aguzov believes that one of the causes of those crimes is the lack of the appropriate response from the law enforcement bodies.

Advocate Bakri Bakriev believes that "the wall of tyranny and lawlessness can be broken only with the help of the media."

It should be noted that in this May, the human rights organization "Amnesty International" has claimed that in Northern Caucasus, advocates work in unacceptable atmosphere of threats and intimidation.