11:52, 1 December 2018

Investigators fail to provide court with information about extrajudicial executions in Chechnya

A court hearing on the lawsuit filed by the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" against investigators who refused to institute a criminal case on the extrajudicial execution of 27 residents of Chechnya was postponed due to the lack of materials for inspections. A representative of the plaintiffs announced the delay in the trial.

In July 2017, the "Novaya Gazeta" published names of 27 people who, according to the newspaper, were detained in Chechnya in December 2016 and January 2017 and executed without trial at night on January 26, 2017.

Today, the investigators have not provided the court with the materials of the inspections on reports of extrajudicial executions. An investigator explained that by the fact that the documents were in the archive. The consideration of the complaint was postponed until December 14, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reported.

Advocate Pyotr Zaikin treated that to be a matter of delay in the court proceedings.

Resolutions of the investigators on refusal to institute a case were cancelled seven times in a row as unfounded. The recent, eighth, refusal was rendered on February 9, 2018, and it was not cancelled.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 30, 2018 at 11:57 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.