Witness in Timur Tumgoev's case denies his testimony

Only one of the four witnesses has confirmed his earlier testimony against Timur Tumgoev, a native of North Ossetia, accused of links with Syrian militants. One of the witnesses said that he had slandered Tumgoev under pressure, fearing for his own life.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Tumgoev was detained in June 2016 at Kharkov Airport, where he had flown from Turkey. In September 2018, Tumgoev was extradited from Ukraine to Russia at the request of the Russia's FSB.

The June 7 court session began with the interrogation of a secret witness under the pseudonym "Ruslan Melikov", who is serving his prison term for taking part in warfare in Syria. The witness stated that he couldn't remember anything because of the contusion received in Syria. For this reason, with the consent of the court, his testimony dated November 2018 was read out, in which Melikov claimed that in 2014 he got acquainted, in the Syrian Muaskar militant camp, with a guy named Timur, who was "undergoing ideological training," and in 2015, he met him in Syria again, when he "was engaged in transfer of recruits from Turkey."

The second to testify was Arsen Gogov, a resident of the Stavropol Territory, who stated that he had never seen Tumgoev. "I gave my testimony under pressure, I think you understand how. The pressure was in tough form; and I still fear for myself and for my life," Mr Gogov has stated.

The third witness referred to his bad memory, and the fourth one failed to recognize Tumgoev in court.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 8, 2019 at 10:06 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.