Stavropol Court refuses to investigate decisions of Predgorny District Court in Kurman-Ali Baichorov's case

The Stavropol Regional Court has refused to hold a re-investigation into the decisions announced by Judge Oleg Popov of the Predgorny District Court in the trial on the case against Kislovodsk Imam Kurman-Ali Baichorov. The defence insisted upon sending a request to Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "MegaFon" for the Judge Oleg Popov's resolutions on submission of detailed address information concerning the number of mobile phone belonging to Nikolai Zavyalikov, a staff member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 12, Kurman-Ali Baichorov was sentenced to 3.5 years of imprisonment in a common-security penal colony and a fine of 50,000 roubles on charges of drug trafficking. The defence has appealed against the sentence. On March 5, the Stavropol Regional Court dismissed the appeal of Kurman-Ali Baichorov from the consideration to remove the defence's comments on the court's verdict.

On April 8, the Stavropol Regional Court refused to return the case to prosecutor and granted a number of motions, including summoning for testifying Police Colonel Nikolai Zavyalikov, the deputy head of the Chief Department for NCFD of the Russian MIA.

According to the defence of Kurman-Ali Baichorov, when the court received the details on the mobile phone number, then, without obtaining the consent of the defence, it sent the information to the telecommunications company to "adjust and falsify the information."

Let us remind you that when questioned at the trial, Yuri Kopylov explained in response to the advocate's question that on October 17, 2013, he worked at the Chief Department for NCFD of the Russian MIA as the head of the department for information technology, communications, and information security. Yuri Kopylov has also explained that the above mobile phone number never belonged to him.

Supporters of the religious figure call the charges filed against him a provocation and associate the prosecution with the Imam's implacable position concerning mosques in Kislovodsk, where the authorities banned their construction.

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