Defence of Ingush activists criticize testimony of secret witness

At the trial of the leaders of Ingush protests, two prosecution witnesses have spoken. One of them described the participants in the March 2019 protest action as extremists, but was unable to justify his statement with specific facts. The second witness testified in favour of the defendants.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the case of seven Ingush protest leaders, accused of creating an extremist community, is considered since November 24, 2020, by the Essentuki City Court in the Stavropol Territory. The case figurants, interrogated in court, including the prosecution witnesses, have so far testified in favour of the defendants.

On February 3, a regular court session on the "Ingush case" was held at the Essentuki City Court. Two prosecution witnesses were questioned. Bilan Dzugaev, an advocate for Zarifa Sautieva, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that one of the above witnesses was made secret.

The witness said that in the morning on March 27, 2020, in Magas, a crowd of extremist-minded people gathered near the building of the Republic's TV and Radio Company. However, as noted by the advocate, the prosecution witness failed to speak negatively about any of the defendants; he failed to assert that any of them called for violence or that he himself had committed illegal acts. "In my opinion, he failed to present to the court any specific facts that could testify to the involvement of our clients in this incident in favour of the prosecution," Mr Dzugaev has summed up.

According to Djabrail Kuriev, the second witness was presented by the prosecution. "He immediately categorically demanded not to be called a prosecution witness. His indignation knew no bounds; and he insisted to be included into the list of defence witnesses, not prosecution ones. Later, answering the judge's questions, the witness described each of the defendants only from a positive side. He believes that it is inadmissible to keep in custody completely innocent people, who are the best representatives of the Ingush people," the advocate has briefly quoted the witness' speech.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 4, 2021 at 08:49 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.