23:50, 28 August 2020

Kabardino-Balkarian native faces double punishment for helping militants

The Southern Military District Court, March 19, 2020. Photo by Konstantin Volgin for the "Caucasian Knot"

The court considers a case against Khasanbi Indreev, a native of Kabardino-Balkaria, accused of complicity in terrorism. Khasanbi Indreev was sentenced for aiding and abetting militants, but the criminal case against him was artificially divided into two, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 24, 2018, Khasanbi Indreev was sentenced to 2 years and 3 months of imprisonment in a penal colony for aiding and abetting militant Alim Bitokov. Considering the period of time spent under house arrest, Khasanbi Indreev was released immediately after the sentence had entered into force. However, in November 2019, a similar criminal case was instituted against the former defendant, that time about aiding and abetting militant Khizir Likhov, who was also involved in the first criminal case. The defence found the new charge unjustified.

According to advocate Inna Golitsyna, being a minor, at the instructions of his father, Khasanbi Indreev once bought food stuffs for Alim Bitokov and Khizir Likhov, who were hiding from law enforcers in Nartan. The advocate claims the young man did not know that they were militants. At the time of the sentencing in 2018, the court was aware that Khasanbi Indreev was helping two persons at once, but the criminal case was divided into two, the defence noted. Since Khizir Likhov was a member of the "Islamic State", a terrorist organization banned in Russia by the court, Khasanbi Indreev faces a tougher punishment in this criminal case.

Earlier, the father of Khasanbi Indreev was also sentenced for aiding and abetting Khizir Likhov and Alim Bitokov.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 28, 2020 at 03:32 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.