Defence of Timur Tangiev hopes for review of his sentence

In Chechnya, during the consideration of the case against Timur Tangiev by the Supreme Court (SC), jurors and witnesses were subjected to pressure. This was claimed by the defendant's defence. According to the advocates, the direction of the case for a re-consideration followed by the announcement of an objective verdict would be a kind of "road map" for judicial reconciliation in Northern Caucasus.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 5, 2004, Timur Tangiev was sentenced to 24 years of imprisonment on charges of committing grave and especially grave crimes. However, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found out that the case was considered with violations of the rights of Timur Tangiev, who was subjected to torture. After that, the Presidium of the Russian Supreme Court sent the case back for re-consideration.

In particular, in their appeal, the Timur Tangiev's advocates point to the biased nature of the jury panel, which includes persons, associated with the law enforcement agencies in the past. It was reported by the "Russian Justice Initiative", which together with other public organization "Astrea" represented the interests of Timur Tangiev at the ECtHR.

In their appeal, the advocates also mentioned the facts of pressure exerted on the jurors and witnesses in the case.

According to Grigor Avetisyan, the Director of the legal activities of the NGO "Legal Assistance-Astrea", at present, the ECtHR considers dozens of applications from Northern Caucasus filed against judicial decisions announced as a result of self-incrimination made by defendants under torture, and in many cases, the complainants cannot hope for a fair review of their cases.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.