08:30, 21 December 2018

Oyub Titiev is among 100 outstanding people of the year

Oyub Titiev in the court. Photo courtesy of HRC 'Memorial'

Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", who has been under arrest in Chechnya since this January, has been included into the annual rating of "100 outstanding people" compiled by the "Russian Reporter".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Titiev was arrested in a drug possession case. The trial of his case began on July 19 at the Shali City Court. The human rights defender claims that drugs were planted on him by law enforcers.

The Human Rights Watch, the Amnesty International, the Front Line Defenders, the Human Rights League and the World Organization Against Torture have expressed their support for Titiev. A resolution on Oyub Titiev's case was adopted by the European Parliament. The rights defender was awarded the Václav Havel Prize and the Franco-German Prize "For Human Rights and the Rule of Law".

The compilers of the rating "100 outstanding People of the Year" note that they were interested in the public image of a person, not in his/her positions and titles.

The surname of Titiev is in the category of "Right and Truth". "While speaking soon after Oyub's arrest on the Chechen television, Ramzan Kadyrov called him a drug addict and an enemy of the nation. The branch of the HRC "Memorial" with Oyub Titiev was the only human rights organization that worked in Chechnya at the time, when being a human rights defender in Chechnya was a life-threatening activity," the compilers of the rating wrote about Oyub Titiev.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 20, 2018 at 10:54 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.