02:10, 10 February 2018

HRC "Memorial": Chechen authorities decide to demolish Oyub Titiev's house

Oyub Titiev. Photo by the press service of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" https://memohrc.org/ru/news_old/zaderzhan-rukovoditel-groznenskogo-predstavitelstva-pravozashchitnogo-centra-memorial

The authorities ordered residents of 37 private houses in Kurchaloi to leave their houses within a week. Among them, there is the house of the family of the arrested rights defender Oyub Titiev; they will demolish the houses in order to build a shopping centre instead, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Oyub Titiev, the head of the HRC "Memorial" office in Grozny, was arrested on January 11 on charges of possessing marijuana.

Titiev has stated that the drug was planted on him by a law enforcer. On January 14, it became known that Titiev's relatives had left Chechnya because of received threats.

According to the HRC "Memorial", on February 5, people were informed, at the gathering near the mosque, about the imminent demolition of their houses. The commission created in the republic promised to provide them with housing in an uncertain future.

"The houses are demolished without any preliminary agreement with their owners," the HRC's release says.

People were ordered to vacate their houses by February 12, and "no one dared to protest," the HRC has noted.

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