In Caliphate case, Court decides to check complaints about torture filed by defendants

On March 30, the North-Caucasian District Military Court continued the trial in the case of a Caliphate.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in August 2016, in Rostov-on-Don, the court started consideration of the case against ten residents of Kabardino-Balkaria. According to the investigators, all 10 defendants of the criminal case were members of an illegal armed formation (IAF), whose goal was to change the constitutional system and establish a caliphate with a Sharia form of government in Kabardino-Balkaria.

On March 30, one of defendants, Zaur Tekuzhev, gave the testimony, the 'Caucasian Knot' correspondent reports.

Advocate Elena Dyakonova has asked if the defendant admits his guilt. "Completely no, I don't," answered Zaur Tekuzhev.

According to the defendant, law enforcers tortured him: they beat him on his hips and spine, they clamped his head with a stool, they connected electric current to his fingers, and they strangled him with plastic bags. As a result, the defendant could not bear torture and signed all the documents that he was offered to sign.

After Zaur Tekuzhev had finished his testimony, advocate Elena Dyakonova filed a motion with a request to the Court to exclude a number of documents from the case, which, according to the defence, were written by the defendant under the dictation of law enforcers after torture.

The Court has pronounced the decision to postpone the consideration of the motion until the complaints of Zaur Tekuzhev about torture are verified. The Court obliged the Prosecutor's Office to check the matter. A similar decision was pronounced by the Court also in respect of the complaints of Arthur Karov, who was interrogated the day before and also complained about torture.

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