07:14, 27 August 2015

Court to respond to complaints about violation of defendants' rights in Amirov's case

Advocates Postanyuk (to the left) and Khoroshilov hold a consultation during the court session. The defendant Murad Aliev is in the background, May 2015. Photo by Oleg Pchyolov for the "Caucasian Knot"

The preliminary investigation and trial in the case against Said Amirov, whose sentence is to be pronounced today, have violated the rights of the defendants, state their advocates. The court should not ignore the defendants' complaints about testimonies given under torture, says human rights activist Igor Kalyapin.

According to Vladimir Postanyuk, the head of the team of advocates, all defendants have repeatedly complained about torture.

The defence sees one more violation in the fact that one of the defendants was not provided with court documents translated into his native language. Two years ago, Yusup Djaparov claimed the need for translation, Vladimir Postanyuk reported.

It should be noted that Yusup Djaparov used to hold a post of the Deputy Mayor of Kaspiysk. Article 16 of the federal law on municipal service in the Russian Federation provides that citizens who speak the state language of the Russian Federation have the right to hold municipal posts. Thus, the defendant was required to know the Russian language.

Igor Kalyapin, the chairman of the Interregional Committee for Prevention of Torture (CPT), has stated that the complaints filed by the defendants and their advocates about the use of physical force must not be left without attention of the court and the Prosecutor's Office.

A lot of violations were committed during the preliminary investigation and trial. This was stated by Valentina Khoreva, an Amirov's advocate. According to her, during the preliminary investigation, the defendants' right to protection was repeatedly violated.

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

Author: Aida Magomedova

Source: CK correspondent