Rights defenders achieve revision of Kardashov's disappearance case

The Chechen Supreme Court (SC) has supported the human rights defenders who demanded to reconsider the conditional sentences passed to two employees of the "Rosgvardia" (Russian National Guard), accused of exceeding their powers when detaining Alexei Kardashov, a resident of Dagestan, and ruled to send the case for a new trial.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 14, 2020, a court in the city of Gudermes found the former "Rosgvardia" employees, Bekkhan Abdurashidov and Aslan Dukaev, guilty of the illegal detention of the above Alexei Kardashov, who afterwards disappeared without a trace. Each of the employees was sentenced to 3.5 years conditionally. The "Committee against Torture" (CaT), which was approached by Tsilya Yakubova, Alexei's mother, would not agree with the verdict. Human rights defenders treat it as an actual acquittal, and insist on revision thereof.

On April 27, the Chechen SC upheld the appeal lodged by human rights defenders and cancelled the verdict against Bekkhan Abdurashidov and Aslan Dukaev, sending the case for a new trial, the CaT's press service has reported.

"The cancellation of the verdict against Dukaev and Abdurashidov and sending the case for a new trial is a chance to draw the court's attention to a lot of important proofs that had been ignored by the first-instance court," the CaT's message quotes Leysan Mannapova, a lawyer, as saying.

She believes that the convicts may be guilty of more serious crimes than just illegal detention.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 27, 2021 at 10:28 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.