Defence states unreliability of investigator's testimonies in Titiev's case

The investigator, who has initiated a criminal case against Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and who was questioned today at the court session, denies the obvious things, said the defender's advocate. The defence and Titiev himself complained to the court about the prosecution's behaviour during the session, but the court rejected the petition to challenge the prosecutor.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Titiev was arrested on January 11 on charges of possessing marijuana. Not all witnesses came to the August 8 session for unknown reasons.

On Wednesday, Oyub's neighbour and the investigator were interrogated.

The witness Akhmed Shakhiev has characterized the rights defender as a sportive person, whom he had never seen drunk or with a cigarette.

The investigator Nurdi Salamov laughed a lot during the interrogation; he answered reluctantly and contradictorily to defence's questions. He also could not remember on what grounds Titiev had been detained.

Tatiana Lokshina, the head of the Moscow bureau of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), has treated Titiev's trial as a farce. In her opinion, Titiev's criminal prosecution is "an attack on the very possibility of human rights work in Chechnya."