Court upholds decision to arrest Abdulmumin Gadjiev

The Supreme Court (SC) of Dagestan dismissed an appeal filed by journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev and left him in custody until March 13.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 31, 2019, in Makhachkala, the court extended the arrest of Abdulmumin Gadjiev until March 13. The journalist called the arguments for his arrest's extension submitted to the court by the FSB an attempt to put pressure on the position of the investigators.

Arsen Shabanov, an advocate of Abdulmumin Gadjiev, appealed to the court with a motion to cancel the pre-trial restriction measure pronounced by the court on December 31, 2019. Abdulmumin Gadjiev attended the hearing of the Supreme Court of Dagestan, which considered the motion, through a video conference.

In the course of the debate, Akhmed Akhmedov, a defender of Abdulmumin Gadjiev, claimed that the adversarial principle was violated during earlier court hearings in his client's case. Abdulmumin Gadjiev himself claimed the inconsistency of the investigators' arguments to extend his arrest. "There are no legal grounds for me to remain in custody," said Abdulmumin Gadjiev.

The public prosecutor called on the court to uphold the decision of the first instance court, and the judge agreed with him, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reported.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 27, 2020 at 04:23 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.