22:24, 28 January 2019

Court denies petition of Titiev's defence on repeated investigative experiment

Oyub Titiev (left) in the courtroom. Photo by Patimat Makhmudova for the Caucasian Knot

The judge has rejected the defence's request for re-creating the circumstances of the inspection of Oyub Titiev's car anew. The advocate's petition to summon two experts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to the court was also rejected.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at the today's court session, Titiev's defence filed a petition for a new investigative experiment with a detailed re-creation of the moment when a policeman allegedly accidentally discovered marijuana in Oyub's car.

On January 11, Oyub Titiev, the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" office in Grozny, was arrested on the charge of drug possession, and his case is being considered by the court since July 19. He claims that the drugs were planted to him by law enforcers.

After the break, the judge refused to satisfy the petition for a repeated investigative experiment, says the message of the Telegram-channel of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Marina Dubrovina, one of Titiev's advocates, filed a petition to summon two experts - employees of the forensic centre of the Russian MIA, Ruslan Abubakarov and Madina Djankhotova. They, as follows from the defence's petition, conducted a study of the scotch film with Titiev's hair.

Earlier, Oyub Titiev told the court under what circumstances law enforcers seized his hair samples. According to his story, on the second day after his detention, on January 10, his mouth was sealed, and some adhesive tape was bound around his head several times; later, the adhesive tape was torn off Titiev's head together with his hair.

"It was necessary for them in order to get Titiev's hair samples. The hairs that could be glued to the bag with the substance could remain on the scotch tape, in order to at least in this way link the drugs to Oyub Titiev. Because either in the blood, or in the hair, there were no signs of the use of narcotic substances by Titiev," the advocate Pyotr Zaikin told the "Caucasian Knot".

The judge refused to satisfy the defence's petition.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 28, 2019 at 06:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.