“They already said that they would open it up”

In the Moscow City Court, five accused of hooliganism had their wrists cut. They have been sitting in a pre-trial detention center for two years, but their trial has not yet begun.

In the Moscow City Court on November 17, five defendants in a hooliganism case cut their wrists right in the courtroom. All of them were participants in a mass brawl in a Moscow restaurant, part of the Tanuki chain, which happened in August 2015. According to the lawyers, their clients have been “driven to despair”: they have been in pre-trial detention for two years, but the trial of the case has not yet begun. The accused are sure that they are not being released only because they are Chechens.

The defendants were put on trial after a mass brawl that took place in the Tanuki restaurant on Lipetskaya Street in Moscow late in the evening on August 6, 2015. According to the prosecution , there was a conflict between “a company of Chechens and restaurant employees”; According to the defense, two groups of guests were in conflict. One of the participants in the conflict left the restaurant and soon returned with a large group - up to 25 people - men from Chechnya. According to the case file , they had baseball bats, hunting rifles, a pistol and a crossbow. Those who came started a fight and mayhem; Two employees of the establishment were seriously injured, including the director - he was shot in the thigh.

The head of the Moscow department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Anatoly Yakunin, took the case under personal control. According to Moskovsky Komsomolets, one of the victims in the fight may be his relative. 13 participants in the fight were charged under the article of hooliganism; some were also charged with other charges - threats to kill, battery and robbery. A few days after the fight, all the suspects were arrested.

The accused have been in jail for two years. The lawyer of one of the defendants in the case (Umar-Khami Idrisov), Meram Teloyan, told Meduza that investigators initially accused the detainees of hooliganism as part of an organized group, but were unable to approve the indictment - the prosecutor’s office returned the cases for additional investigation.

After this, according to Teloyan, the case was reclassified as a milder “hooliganism committed by a group of persons” - and they promised to present the case materials to the defense for review. “But we are not actually introduced to them. The case is being dragged out, investigators want them to stay in pre-trial detention for as long as possible. Although they would have already served time and left. The people have not been convicted and admit their guilt in hooliganism,” the lawyer said.

On November 17, five defendants cut their wrists during a court hearing to extend their arrest. Lawyer Teloyan said that at 10:30 the Moscow City Court began a pretrial hearing for six of the 13 detainees - Umar-Khami Idrisov, Rambek Musrapilov, Shakhman Abduev, Aslan Makhmutmerzaev, Shamil Saduev and Abdul Satabaev. The investigation petitioned to extend their arrest until January 2018.

Umar Idrisov stood up from the dock during the hearing; According to Teloyan's lawyer, Idrisov realized that the arrest would be extended again. The accused said that the case was dragging on, and they were not being released from the pre-trial detention center only because they were Chechens. Following Idrisov, four more defendants stood up - they all cut their wrists; elements of lighters were used as blades, which they carried into the courtroom (initially it was reported that the veins of six people were cut).

The video contains swear words. If it's not acceptable to you, don't turn it on.

As follows from the video of the incident published on the Mash telegram channel (associated with the Life publication), the accused continued to stand, although they lost a large amount of blood. In the video, a woman can also be heard screaming that she “begged not to do this.”

The accused have already said that they would attempt suicide. Meram Teloyan, in a conversation with Meduza, said that the arrested told him that they would “open up” if they were not released from the pre-trial detention center, but the defense lawyer did not think that they would actually do this. “They were driven to despair. But I hope that they wanted to protest and not kill themselves,” he emphasized. The lawyer of the other accused, Shamil Yandarbaev, agrees with him: according to him, they did it out of “despair.”

The Investigative Committee of Russia has already begun checking the incident in court. It is not yet known exactly how the accused were able to bring sharp objects into the courtroom. Investigators will evaluate the work of the guards who accompanied the accused; The Investigative Committee clarified that their actions can be seen as negligence, abuse of power and incitement to suicide. The Moscow City Court stated that court employees have nothing to do with checking defendants before the hearing and it is the guards who should do this. In total, the six accused were accompanied by about ten employees - police officers and guards.

The defendants' arrest was extended. After all those accused of hooliganism received medical assistance, the meeting continued. The arrest of all six was extended until January 2018.

Pavel Merzlikin