In case against Karpenko and Grishina, key witness claims law enforcers' pressure

Two witnesses have testified at the trial in the case against Tatiana Karpenko and Natalia Grishina, accused of plotting a terror act in one of the shopping centres in Rostov-on-Don. The witnesses are young women who had been living at the defendants' place for some time.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Tatiana Karpenko, a native of the Russian town of Tsimlyansk, and Natalia Grishina, a native of Kazakhstan, are accused of plotting a terror act in one of the Rostov shopping centres. Besides, the defendants are also charged with supporting terrorist activities and illegal trafficking in explosives.

In the course of a court hearing held on August 4, witness Shuanet Akhmedova, who stayed in the house of Tatiana Karpenko and Natalia Grishina on the day of their arrest, stated that she was inclined to testify against the defendants. According to the witness, during interrogations at the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), officers of the Centre for Combating Extremism (CCE) demanded from her to testify that Tatiana Karpenko and Natalia Grishina wanted to leave for Syria to fight on the side of the ISIL, a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

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