Shoals in the case

The collegium of the Supreme Court of Chechnya consisting of Dmitry Gorbovtsov (chairman), Buvadi Shovkhalov and Timur Emiev confirmed the verdict to the 23-year-old journalist of the Caucasian Knot, Jalaudi Geriyev, convicted by three years of general regime in the fabricated case of the storage of Anasha. This was reported by colleagues of the journalist.

The consideration of the appeal about the sentence to Politseku lasted almost a month and a half and took about a dozen meetings. The hearing began on November 15 in the absence of Geriev himself, which was not taken to the court from the pre-trial detention center-2 in the village of Chernokozovo, Naursky district. As the lawyer Alaudi Musaev explained , the convoy, who was supposed to bring the political prisoner to the meeting, was mistakenly sent to Grozny SIZO-1. The lawyer explained the content of Geriev in the remote Chernokozovo by the lack of places in the metropolitan pre -trial detention center. From November 22, hearings were already held with the participation of the convict.

Geriyev and his defenders - Musaev, Dzhabrail Abubakarov and Nadezhda Ermolaev - repeatedly declared bouncers both to members of the judicial collegium and the prosecutor Oleg Amirov , but these bends were invariably deflected.

At the hearings on November 23, lawyers demanded to send Geriev’s statement about the abduction by the security forces to the Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the North Caucasus Federal District. The defender Musaev emphasized that it is necessary to transfer the materials in the district, and not to the Chechen regional headquarters of the department. He explained that the Chechen Directorate of the Investigative Committee has already conducted an audit on the application. This check lasted six months and did not give results. Nevertheless, the judges again sent a statement by Geroriev to the regional head of the TFR.

On December 26, in court, the TFR refused to initiate a case of a journalist about the abduction was read out in court.

On Tuesday passed the debate of the parties. Lawyer Musaev, having listed procedural violations committed by the investigation and prosecutor, called their actions legal rudeness.

Then Geriev performed with the last word. “Any of your decision, if it is not fraught with my rehabilitation and complete excuse, will be illegal,” he warned the judges. “You must answer the question of whether there is an impartial court in the Chechen Republic, whether laws are working here.”

After the announcement of the appeal definition, Geriev shouted loudly to the judges: "You answered the question of whether you have a law - no!"

The protection of the Politzek is preparing a cassation complaint against the verdict. In addition, on the eve of the final meeting on Wednesday, lawyers prepared an appeal to the ECHR.

The verdict of Geriev was issued on September 5 by the judge of the Shali City Court of Chechnya Adam Khumigov . The journalist was declared guilty under part 2 of Article 228 of the Criminal Code (illegal storage and transportation of drugs in large scale without a sales target). He received the minimum period provided for by the Code of this charges. In the debate of the parties, the prosecutor Milena Baitaeva requested a colony for the defendant for five years and a year of restriction of freedom after a deadline.

Geriev himself in court declared his innocence, explaining that he gave confession as a result of torture and threats. He clearly connected his persecution with professional activities. The representative of one of the Chechen NPOs in the commentary to the Caucasian Knot expressed himself even more definitely, saying that Anasha was thrown to the journalist precisely because of his cooperation with this publication.

Geriev was abducted on April 16, when he sat on a minibus, which went to Grozny. From the Chechen capital, he intended to fly to Moscow at the seminar "Media and the Constitutional Court", organized by the Institute of Law and Public Policy.

When Geriev sat on the front seat of the minibus, three strangers approached him. The journalist was hit on the head, pulled out and pushed into the black "Lada Prior". Two mobile phones and a backpack with a passport, laptop and other things were taken from him. The stolen was taken to the forest near the village of Tsotsin-Yurt Kurchaloevsky district.

There, strangers began to ask Geriev about what he was doing and was he going to leave for Syria. The kidnapped replied that he was working as a journalist, but did not intend to go to Syria, because he condemns any terrorism.

After about 30-40 minutes, another car arrived in the forest. A man who came out of it put on a plastic bag on his head and did not take off until the journalist began to choke. At the same time, the hands of the stolen were twisted by wire. Then the stranger left, taking the abducted backpack.

After that, Geriev was taken to the cemetery on the outskirts of the village of Kurchal. It is this object that appears in the case as a place of detention of a journalist.

According to the case file, on the morning of April 16, Geriev took 167.07 grams of Anasha in a plastic bag and went to the Kurchaloevsky cemetery to smoke it there. Why did the journalist need to take with him such a large volume of psychedelik, as much as you can conclude, was not explained. At the cemetery, the accusation claimed, the security forces stopped by Geriev from the regional department, who during the inspection and found Anasha.

At the same time, lawyer Musaev noted that, as follows from the case file, Geriev did not use drugs. The lawyer also drew attention to the lack of witnesses of the crime imputed to the journalist.

Geriev’s relatives did not want to report his abduction and arrest for a long time, although he himself insisted on publicity. Relatives explained their silence with fears for the life of the political prisoner.

At the same time, the initially some "high -ranking Chechen police" assured his family journalist that "the misunderstanding should be resolved." They called to wait two weeks, promising that the protocol under Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (petty hooliganism) would be outlined and after serving administrative arrest he would be released.

However, when after two weeks the journalist was not released, the relatives still continued to be silent.

As the New Gazeta reported , in September, after the verdict was issued by Geriev, Politzeck in the pre -trial detention center was visited twice by the FSB operatives. From the permits issued by Judge Khumigov, it followed that they wanted to interview the journalist as part of some operational-search events. The lawyers did not attend polls and learned about them only in November, when they studied the case file during the consideration of the appeal, the publication wrote.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday evening, after a decision on the appeal of Geriev, the Caucasian Knot reported that on December 7, the defenders of the Politzek’s lawyer survey dedicated to the visit of the security forces - as it turned out, in reality the journalist was visited once, not two. Visiters were two operatives of the Kurchaloevsky department of the FSB. They offered Politzeck assistance in exchange for "cooperation". As part of the "cooperation" from Geriev, it was required to provide information about the editorial policy of the "Caucasian node", and if possible - to influence it. Also, the security forces were interested in the connection of the journalist with foreign media and his trips abroad.

“I answered the employees that I am nothing more than a journalist, I always wrote and I will write the truth, and the Caucasian Knot never worked in any interests,” Geriev told the defenders. “The employees left, realizing that I can’t tell them anything else.”

Ermolaev’s lawyer emphasized that the security forces did not have the right to interrogate the political prisoner in the absence of protection.