Human rights defenders recognize Gudermes resident, sentenced to life imprisonment, as political prisoner

Mekhidi Timerbulatov, a resident of Gudermes, has been sentenced to life imprisonment on the charges of involvement in terror acts in Chechnya based on falsified materials, the “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” human rights project has stated.

Mekhidi Timerbulatov, a 44-year-old resident of Gudermes, has been in custody since August 2001. In May 2004, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, but human rights defenders only recently received documents on his case that allowed them claiming that the charges had been falsified. The human rights defenders concluded that the Mekhidi Timerbulatov’s right to a fair trial had been violated.

Mekhidi Timerbulatov was found guilty under eight articles, including articles on terror act and murder. According to the public prosecutors’ version, the man was involved in the terror acts committed in Gudermes on June 19, 2001, then two cars with explosives were blown up near a court building and a police station. As a result, three person were killed and 45 others were injured.

Mekhidi Timerbulatov claimed that law enforcers tortured him and forced him to confess to a crime when threatening to use violence against his relatives. Three of his relatives were kidnapped in January 2002, and their fate has been unknown since then.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) noted that law enforcers beat his relatives in front of Mekhidi and threatened to rape his sister, forcing him to confess the involvement in the terror acts.

Mekhidi Timerbulatov’s complaints about torture remained unanswered. The verdict was based solely on the confessions of the accused, which they later retracted.