Advocate treats verdict to Kurbanov brothers as unjustified

The verdict to Mukhtar and Ismail Kurbanov, sentenced to long prison terms under the case of links with Syrian militants, will be appealed against, because their guilt has not been proved, Alfat Gabbasov, their advocate, is sure.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 17, 2020, the Southern District Military Court found both defendants to be members of an illegal armed formation (IAF) in Dagestan and Syria, as well as members of a terrorist organization, and sentenced them to imprisonment: Ismail for 15 and Mukhtar for 17 years in a maximum security colony.

Alfat Gabbasov, their advocate, has stated that the defence intends to challenge the verdict as unjustified.

"In the nearest future, we'll certainly appeal against the verdict, since we believe that all the criminal cases against Kurbanov brothers had been opened with violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure; their guilt was not proved in court. We'll talk in more details about all the violations after studying the full text of the verdict," Mr Gabbasov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Earlier during the debate, the advocate had stated that the entire indictment of Kurbanov brothers was based on their confessions, which they later refused from.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 17, 2020 at 07:50 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.