Advocates of Ingush protest leaders argue with judge about status of witnesses

A court refused to grant Ingush activists the status of witnesses in a case on seven leaders of protests against the border agreement with Chechnya. The court’s refusal can result in the exclusion of the testimony from the case, the defence declares.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the case against seven leaders of the protest in Ingushetia, who are accused of creating an extremist community, is being considered by a court in the Stavropol Territory since November 24, 2020. The defendants are under arrest.

On July 21, the Kislovodsk City Court questioned 15 people invited by the defence. Earlier, all of them had been convicted for participating in clashes at a rally in Magas. The judge did not warn the witnesses about the criminal liability for giving false testimony and did not take their signatures, justifying such an attitude by the fact that they were involved in the same criminal case with the defendants and had the status of convicts, not witnesses. The defence protested.

“As a result of such a manoeuvre of the court, those testimonies may be excluded from the case or taken critically, because a signature that is taken from a witness is a guarantee of the reliability of his testimony. We are still studying with other advocates what the consequences may be after such a court decision, because many of us have not had any similar incidents in practice yet,” advocate Bilan Dzugaev said after the trial.

During the court hearing, the activists stated that the defendants did not exert any influence on them and did not call on them to resist.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 22, 2021 at 06:27 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.