The family of the head of the Chechen “Memorial” Oyub Titiev left the republic

Relatives of the head of the Grozny Memorial, Oyub Titiev, left Chechnya due to threats from law enforcement agencies. Lawyer Pyotr Zaikin told Novaya Gazeta about this.

“There were many threats against them, they are afraid to stay in Chechnya. They face criminal liability. During the trial, Oyub said that one of the threats was against his son. He was required to confess to illegal actions related to drug trafficking. Otherwise, they promised to initiate a case against him under Article 208 of the Criminal Code,” the defense lawyer said.

The lawyer emphasized that he learned about the departure from an employee of the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where Oyub Titiev was previously held.

“I learned about this from an employee of the Kurchaloevsky department - he did not want to introduce himself, and it was difficult for me to determine from the form that he belonged to any of the departments. “Why are they running from us? Why did you leave home?” he asked me. And I said that this is the first time I’ve heard about this from him. Then this information began to come to me from other sources. I learned that police officers came for a search, could not find the relatives and expressed dissatisfaction with this,” the lawyer told the publication.

Press secretary of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov Alvi Karimov told Interfax that no one is putting pressure on the human rights activist and his family.

“The law enforcement agencies of the Chechen Republic are surprised by the lawyer’s statement that his client O. Titiev is allegedly receiving some kind of threats. This is absolutely not true. No one has ever demanded and is not demanding that Titiev, accused of drug possession, give a confession if he is not guilty. Also completely unfounded are the statements that the family was forced to leave the republic for safety reasons, allegedly due to some kind of threats. Not a single person expressed threats against Titiev’s relatives,” the press secretary said.

• On the morning of January 9, the head of Grozny Memorial was detained .
• On January 10, police kicked Titiev’s relatives out of their house. They were looking for his son and brother and threatened the human rights activist's relatives with trouble.
• On the evening of the same day, Titiev was accused of drug possession. A bag of drugs was allegedly found in his car. The human rights activist does not admit his guilt.
• On January 11, the court arrested the head of Memorial for two months. Mediazona published a transcript of the meeting.

Lawyer Pyotr Zaikin reported that the Chechen police persuaded Titiev to self-incriminate and threatened his relatives. On January 11, human rights organizations the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, FIDH and the World Organization Against Torture issued a joint statement. They demanded that the Russian authorities release Oyub Titiev, writes the Caucasian Knot. On January 12, lawyer Petr Zaikin appealed the arrest decision. Zaikin also reported that the human rights activist’s son was threatened with opening a criminal case under Article 228 of the Criminal Code.