HRC reminds Putin: rights of Chechens Tsetiev brothers and Razhapov violated

Tsetiev brothers and Khamid Razhapov, natives of Chechnya, freed from the charges of attacking rescuers, had been under criminal prosecution for several years. This was announced by Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Human Rights Council (HRC), at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Mikhail Fedotov proposed to create a group to assess the legality of court's decisions.

Brothers Khusein and Said-Magomed Tsetiev and Khamid Razhapov were detained in September 2014. They were accused of MfE rescuers in the area of the Vnukovo village. The defence claimed that all three defendants had an alibi, confirmed by records of video cameras.

"Justice triumphed. The Investigating Committee closed the case on attempted murder, and a week ago, the Moscow police closed the case on disorderly conduct ... And during all those five years, the people were under criminal prosecution, and they spent three years in SIZO (pre-trial prison)," Mikhail Fedotov said.

Vladimir Putin has assured that he remembers the proposal to create an institution of municipal prosecutors, but expressed his concern that the idea may become "unrealizable or useless."

In his turn, the head of the HRC has called impunity "the most dangerous enemy of the law enforcement system in Russia."