Advocates of defendants in Borlakov's death case ask court for acquittal

The power agents Askhat Laipanov and Kazbek Batchaev are innocent of the death of Murat Borlakov, a resident of the Karachay-CherkessianRepublic (KChR), their advocates assert. They treat the testimonies of the main witness as contradictory and unreliable; however, the aggrieved party does not agree.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Murat Borlakov died at the Ust-Djeguta ROVD (District Interior Division) on February 3, 2014, an hour after his detention. According to the testimonies of the other persons, detained together with him, Borlakov was tortured. The defendants deny their guilt.

One of the key witnesses for the prosecution was Soslan Zhigunov, who, according to his story, was taken to the ROVD together with Borlakov and was a direct eyewitness of his beating. Zhigunov died on December 20, 2015.

The guilt of Askhat Laipanov was not proved, his advocate Evgeny Kuzyur told the court on October 13.

"None of the witnesses gave evidence that Laipanov inflicted bodily injuries with those aims, under those motive and intent, as specified in the indictment. The so-called witness Zhigunov failed to explain in any of his contradictory statements with what aim Laipanov had allegedly beaten up Borlakov," said Kuzyur.

The defender of Kazbek Batchaev, in his turn, pointed to the unreliability of Zhigunov's testimonies.

"Zhigunov was a drug addict, registered at the narcology dispensary since March 20, 2006. He had four earlier convictions. Consequently, his attitude to law enforcers was negative. Besides, his testimonies were diametrically opposite at the preliminary investigation and at the trial. Based on the aforesaid, I ask the court to acquit Batchaev," the advocate has concluded.

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