18 July 2018, 19:10
Defence convinces Court to wait for Oyub Titiev's advocate
Today, a court hearing in the case against Oyub Titiev has been postponed for a day after the defenders declared the absence of one of the Oyub Titiev's advocates to be a violation of the right to defence.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Shali City Court scheduled for today the first hearing to consider the merits of the Oyub Titiev's case. On July 15, two days before the trial, the Chechen TV Channel showed a story accusing Oyub Titiev.
Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", was arrested on January 11 on charges of possessing marijuana. He pleaded not guilty and stated that the drugs had been planted on him.
The first hearing in the Oyub Titiev's case has begun today with a delay of 20 minutes.
Pyotr Zaikin, an advocate of Oyub Titiev, told the Court it was impossible to start considering the case on the merits, since the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya to refuse to change the territorial jurisdiction of the Oyub Titiev's case had not yet come into force.
Public prosecutor has objected and referred to the fact that, according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, there were no grounds preventing the consideration of the case, and the judge decided to continue the consideration.
The defence has also filed a motion to postpone the court hearing due to the absence of advocate Ilya Novikov, engaged in another trial at the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia. Ilya Novikov did not expect that the consideration of the Oyub Titiev's case on the merits would be started prior to the consideration of the appeal about changing the territorial jurisdiction of the case by the Supreme Court of Russia, the defenders explained.
If the consideration of the case continues in the absence of Ilya Novikov, the Oyub Titiev's right to defence will be violated, the defenders explained their request. After that, the Court declared a break until 12:00 a.m. Moscow time on July 19.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 18, 2018 at 12:31 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Author: Patimat Makhmudova Source: CK correspondent
