15 November 2023, 18:20
Defence alleges many violations in verdict against Chechen book publisher Aslambek Ezhaev
The Military Court of Appeal in Vlasikha began consideration of a complaint filed by defenders against the verdict to Aslambek Ezhaev, a book publisher from Chechnya. The defence alleges numerous violations during the consideration of the case in the first instance court.
The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on February 3, the 2nd Western District Military Court in Moscow sentenced 60-year-old Aslambek Ezhaev to 17 years of imprisonment, finding him guilty of financing terrorism. The book publisher stated his sentence would be lifelong.
Advocate Murad Musaev claims that the first instance court did not return the case to the public prosecutor and did not request materials proving that Aslambek Ezhaev was not guilty. The defender calls the second serious violation the use of testimony from classified witnesses who could not say where they received the data they had voiced. The third violation is that Aslambek Ezhaev was accused of committing one crime, but was found guilty of two.
The advocate also states that the first instance court grossly violated its duty to understand the merits.
In August 2022, the collection of sayings of the Prophet Muhammad “Sahih al-Bukhari”* published by the “Ummah” was included in the list of extremist materials, which outraged religious figures in Northern Caucasus and Ramzan Kadyrov. Furthermore, two more books published by Aslambek Ezhaev and the “Ummah” in 2008 were also included in the list of extremist materials. In January, the Chechen parliament submitted to the Russian State Duma a draft law banning the recognition of canonical Islamic and Christian texts as extremist materials.
*The edition “Sahih al-Bukhari” (Summary) “Authentic stories from the life of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: A clear presentation of the hadiths of the “Authentic Collection”, compiled by Imam Abu al-Abbas Ahmad Abbind al-Latif az -Zubaidi, and translated from Arabic by Abdullah Nirsha, (5th edition, corrected), released in 2007 by the “Ummah” publishing house, is recognized as extremist material and included in the federal list of materials prohibited for distribution.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 14, 2023 at 08:32 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: Caucasian Knot
