Relatives of arrested Derbent residents hold pickets against removal of advocate

At a picket in Makhachkala, female relatives of Islam Barzukaev and Gasan Kurbanov, residents of Derbent, claimed that an investigator ordered to remove the advocate of the defendants and thus deprived them of their right to defence. A mother of Mirzaali Mirzaliev, the third defendant in the case on terrorism, complains that investigators are forcing him to incriminate Islam Barzukaev and Gasan Kurbanov.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in June 2019, Islam Barzukaev, Gasan Kurbanov, and Mirzaali Mirzaliev were detained and charged with participation in an illegal armed formation (IAF). On January 27, in Derbent, the mothers of the defendants held pickets to protest against the investigators' refusal to institute a criminal case on torture.

The female relatives of the defendants demanded to guarantee "their sons' right to defence." They claimed that in December, the investigator removed advocate Tagir Shamsudinov, whom Elena Barzukaeva and Zainab Rabadanova hired to defend their family members.

After Tagir Shamsudinov had agreed to defend Islam Barzukaev and Gasan Kurbanov, they retracted their confessions and complained about torture, said Zainab Rabadanova, an aunt of Gasan Kurbanov. "Gasan and Islam complained that it was self-incrimination, which they had to sign under torture," the woman explained.

Elena Barzukaeva associates the removal of the advocate with an attempt to hide the falsifications in the criminal case.