Stavropol court upholds verdict to Kislovodsk Imam

Today, the Stavropol Territorial Court has upheld the verdict to Kislovodsk Imam Kurman-Ali Baichorov on charges of drug dealing.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 12 Kurman-Ali Baichorov was sentenced to 3.5 years in a general security colony and a fine of 50,000 roubles on charges of drug dealing. The defence appealed against the sentence. On April 8, the Stavropol Territorial Court began considering the complaint against the verdict.

As reported by Taulan Ebzeev, one of Baichorov's advocates, his colleagues Alaudi Musaev, Adam Abubakarov and Nadezhda Ermolaeva could not attend the today's session.

According to Ebzeev, "the defence duties are distributed among all the advocates; therefore, he could not participate in the session alone."

"Baichorov himself has stated that the case cannot be heard in the absence of his advocates Musaev and Abubakarov, because his right to defence would be violated. However, the judge has concluded the judicial investigation, proceeded to debates and ruled on the appeal by upholding the conviction," said Ebzeev.

According to Adam Abubakarov, now it makes no sense to return Baichorov's case to the stage of judicial investigation.

"We will prepare a cassation and file a lawsuit to the European Court of Human Rights," said the lawyer.

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