09 September 2023, 18:54
In Dagestani journalist Gadjiev’s case, defendants plead not guilty in their final speeches
In their final speech, Kemal Tambiev, Abdulmumin Gadjiev, and Abubakar Rizvanov have stated that public prosecution did not present any convincing evidence in court. The defendants have again pleaded not guilty.
The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on June 22, public prosecutor requested the court to sentence Abdulmumin Gadjiev, Abubakar Rizvanov, and Kemal Tambiev to 19 years of imprisonment. On August 31, Abdulmumin Gadjiev and his advocate claimed that the public prosecution ignored a number of violations pointed out by the defence and also manipulated the results of examinations.
Abdulmumin Gadjiev, the editor of the Dagestani weekly newspaper “Chernovik” (Rough Draft), Abubakar Rizvanov, the head of the “Ansar” charitable foundation, and Kemal Tambiev have been arrested since June 2019 on the charges of financing terrorism.
“I am offended by every word in the investigator’s wording stating that I was allegedly a member of a criminal grouping, propagated the extremist ideas of the “Islamic State” (IS, a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, – note of the “Caucasian Knot”), and was allegedly engaged in charity work to cover up criminal activities,” stated Kemal Tambiev in his final speech.
“Over these years, the Telegram channel of the newspaper “Chernovik” has turned into a mouthpiece for the people who solve their problems through it ... Yes, we spent four years in prison, but those were the most productive years of our lives,” Abdulmumin Gadjiev said in court.
The editor of the newspaper “Chernovik” has pointed out that many of the charges did not prove the guilt of the defendants and that almost all the prosecution witnesses “one by one went over” to the side of the accused.
Like the previous ones, the third examination, which the public prosecution insisted on in court, did not find any calls for illegal actions in Abdulmumin Gadjiev’s publications.
“The accusation against me of calling for terrorist organizations on the pages of the newspaper ‘Chernovik’ turned out to be a fake. Three examinations did not find even a hint [of calls for terrorist organizations] in my publications,” emphasized Abdulmumin Gadjiev.
“There is not a single person who has ever heard radical statements from me, Gadjiev, and Tambiev,” stated Abubakar Rizvanov.
There is a chance for the defendants to be acquitted, although the proportion of acquittals under terrorist charges is extremely small, note colleagues of Abdulmumin Gadjiev.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 8, 2023 at 07:24 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: Caucasian Knot
