Attempt to kidnap an acquitted Chechen resident from Ingushetia Supreme Court

On February 2, 2006, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ingushetia completed the hearing of the case of Murad Iraklievich Margoshvili, a Chechen resident accused of crimes under Article 205, Part 3 (terrorism), Article 209, Parts 1, 2 (banditism), Article 222, Part 3 (Illegal acquisition, storage, transportation or wearing of arms and explosives), Article 223, Part 3 (Illegal manufacture of arms), Article 34, Part 3 (Illegal trade in hard or poisonous substances). The jury unanimously found Margoshvili non-guilty on all counts of the charge. Having heard the verdict, Judge Isa Gazdiev announced the decision on changing the measure of restraint and ordered Margoshvili to be immediately released in the court room.

The "Memorial" HRC has learnt from lawyer Nodar Mikhailovich Duishvili (Moscow Bar Association), that, prior to the verdict announcement, a plain-clothes man of Slavonic appearance, approximately 40 years of age, with burns and scars on his face, entered the court room. After the acquittal was announced he made a call on his mobile and exited the court room. The sister of the acquitted Margoshvili recognized him as a person they had seen at the court entrance. He had been standing by a white "Gazel" car with tinted glass windows in which unknown armed men in camouflage were sitting. Lawyer Duishvili N.M. realized that his defendant was in danger and warned the latter, following which Margoshvili quickly and quietly left the court room, reports the "Memorial" HRC statement handed over to the "Caucasian Knot."

Several minutes later, a group of 5-6 armed people wearing camouflage rushed into the RI Supreme Court building. The lawyer suggests they were FSB agents. Four of them blocked the exit while the others started searching the court room, looking for Margoshvili. They were led by the same man in plain clothes who had been attending the court hearing. The lawyer managed to get out of the building and he drove to a safe distance to phone to the "Memorial" human rights centre.

Duishvili N.M. thinks that the jury did not accept the arguments of the prosecution because all of them were based on assumptions and conjectures. In addition, Margoshvili had already been convicted on a number of counts by the Sunzhensk district court of Ingushetia to two years of imprisonment in 2004, while the prosecution requested that Margoshvili should be tried on the same counts again.

On October 7, 2003, Margoshvili M. I. was kidnapped by unidentified officers of RF power authorities in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, together with Yu. Khitinaev, H. Khadzhiev, I. Isayev, I. Magomadov and S. Khadzhiev. Two days later, Yu. Khitinaev and H. Khadzhiev were thrown away in the vicinity of the village of Ekazhevo, after beatings in the basement of a building in the town of Magas. Some time later, Margoshvili was "found" in the pre-trial prison of Vladikavkaz, the North Ossetia capital, while the fate of the others is unknown till now.

The "Memorial" HRC assumes that Margoshvili M. I., a Chechen resident, and his family are under a real threat of persecution by power authorities.