Rostov-on-Don: defenders ask Court to acquit Said Amirov and Yusup Djaparov

In Rostov-on-Don, the North-Caucasian District Military Court held the pleadings at the trial in the case against Said Amirov, Mayor of Makhachkala, temporary dismissed from office, and Yusup Djaparov, former Deputy Mayor of Kaspiysk. The defence has claimed the criminal case had been fabricated and asked the Court to acquit the defendants.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 26, the Court started pleadings in the criminal case. Prosecutors have asked the Court to sentence Said Amirov to 13 years and Yusup Djaparov to 11 years of imprisonment.

After a break in the session, the Court listened to advocates Dmitry Khoroshilov and Gevork Balasyan.

At the beginning of his speech, Dmitry Khoroshilov has emphasized that the criminal case was "orchestrated" and "fabricated". He added that to charge Said Amirov and Yusup Djaparov with the crimes means to show "viciousness and absurdity both in legal and in human understanding."

According to the advocate, the criminal case was opened with violations and the investigators also committed violations when they conducted the investigation into the case. Then, the advocate started to consider episodes of the criminal case to get to its essence. The defender claimed the inconsistency of the very criminal case and failure of the witnesses' testimonies to describe the real situation.

Advocate Gevork Balasyan has stated that he fully agrees with his colleague. He asked the Court to pronounce the verdict of acquittal.