ZCZC
BFF-30
RUSSIA-RIGHTS-TRIAL-CHECHNYA
Russian prosecutors seek four years for Chechnya activist
MOSCOW, March 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Russian prosecutors on Monday asked a
court to sentence a top rights activist in Chechnya to four years in a penal
colony, over what campaigners say are trumped-up drug charges.
Oyub Titiyev, the 61-year-old head of the Chechnya branch of rights group
Memorial, was arrested at the start of last year.
His lawyers say the case is connected to Titiyev’s investigations into the
secretive prison system of a republic that is notorious for rights abuses.
“We ask that Titiyev be found guilty and sentenced to four years in a penal
colony, along with a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,500; 1,350 euros),”
prosecutors told the court in Chechnya’s Shali district, according to Russian
news agencies.
A verdict in the trial, which has been ongoing since last summer, is
expected shortly.
Observers say drug charges have been used repeatedly in the past to silence
critical journalists and rights workers in the region.
Memorial is the last rights organisation to retain a visible presence in
Chechnya while remaining critical of local leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
The NGO said its offices in the neighbouring Ingushetia republic were
torched following Titiyev’s arrest and colleagues in Dagestan, another
Caucasus republic, were attacked.
The group speaks out about human rights violations in Russia and has
accused the Chechen leader of overseeing a “totalitarian” regime that uses
kidnappings and torture.
Titiyev’s predecessor as the regional leader of Memorial, Natalya
Estemirova, was kidnapped and killed in 2009. The rights group said the
killers were acting on the orders of local authorities.
BSS/AFP/MR/1512 hrs