Decision to pay compensations to Chechens Tsetievs and Razhapov was promoted by public outcry

The defence of the Chechen natives, Said-Magomed and Khusein Tsetiev and Khamid Razhapov has appealed against the court decision to reimburse their arrest on unfair charges, trying to increase the compensation amount. Public resonance will contribute to success in such cases, lawyers believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 1, a Moscow court ruled to pay compensations ranging from half a million to a million roubles to Tsetievs and Razhapov, who had spent three years each in custody on charges of an attempted assassination on employees of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE).

The defence of the Tsetievs and Razhapov has challenged the judgements on compensations for unjustified prosecution in order to increase the amount, Tatiana Okushko, one of the advocates has explained.

To succeed in such cases, a combination of a number of factors is needed, Roza Magomedova, a lawyer of the "Civil Assistance", believes. She has pointed to the presence of alibi with the natives of Chechnya. She treats a resonance in the media as another important factor for the defence's success.

Marina Agaltsova, a lawyer at the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", also believes that the media attention to the criminal case is very important for the defence's success.

According to her story, a positive court ruling on paying compensation "is not an exceptional case, but very rare." Even with a combination of all the factors, success in such cases is not guaranteed, she has emphasized.