Verdict to Chechen book publisher Ezhaev upheld despite defence's arguments

The cassation instance has upheld the verdict to Aslambek Ezhaev, a Chechen book publisher, convicted of financing terrorism. The court found his defence's arguments and those put forward by the publisher himself about the signs of case fabrication as unconvincing.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in November 2023, the military appellate court made minor changes to Ezhaev's verdict, but upheld the sentence of 17 years of freedom deprivation.

Eva Chanieva, an Ezhaev's advocate, pointed to the "initially accusatory bias" of the court. According to her version, the charges were based in fact only on the money transfers that people named by investigators as Ezhaev's accomplices made to him, and on the assumption that Ezhaev was then transporting money to Turkey to finance the IS*.

In support of their conclusions, investigators presented 13 secret witnesses who testified under pseudonyms. The defence has special claims against them. "All the witnesses under pseudonyms gave false testimonies. Their answers failed to match what they gave during the preliminary investigation," Eva Chanieva has explained.

She believes that secret witnesses' testimonies are inadmissible proofs. "The entire verdict is de facto based on the words of these secret witnesses," Eva Chanieva has added.

"The investigators and judges are leading everything to a guilty verdict. They either have no professionalism or no conscience," Aslambek Ezhaev has claimed.

The advocate has specified that Ezhaev must spend four out of 17 years in prison. "Of course, there are difficulties, including with the transfer of medicines," she said.

*On December 29, 2014, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the organization "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL or IS) as a terrorist international organization and banned its activities in Russia.

**In December 2021, the Laishevsky Court of Tatarstan found the fifth edition of 2007 translation of Sahih al-Bukhari by Vladimir Nurshi as extremist, and on July 5, 2022, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan upheld the decision. On August 29, 2022, on the basis of this, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation included Sahih al-Bukhari (with the exception of the suras, verses and quotes from the Koran contained in it) into the Federal List of Extremist Materials.