The European Parliament called on Russia to release the head of the Chechen “Memorial” Oyub Titiev

The European Parliament, at a plenary session in Strasbourg, adopted a resolution calling on the Russian government to immediately release the head of the Chechen branch of the Memorial Human Rights Center, Oyub Titiev. RIA Novosti reports this.

The document states that the European Parliament “urges the Russian authorities to ensure full respect for the human and legal rights of Mr. Titiev, including access to a lawyer and medical care, physical integrity and dignity, as well as protection from prosecution, criminalization and arbitrary arrest.”

The parliamentarians also insist on conducting “independent, objective and thorough investigations into the regrettable events in Chechnya.”

The head of the Grozny Memorial, Oyub Titiev, was detained on the morning of January 9. The next day, the police kicked Titiev’s relatives out of the 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 prohibited substances was allegedly found in his car. The court arrested the head of Memorial for two months.
On January 18, security forces also came to the owner of the premises in Grozny, which is rented by Memorial. They demanded to open the door to the organization’s office and convinced the woman that “she was wrong” because she was renting out the premises to human rights activists.
On January 19, a search was carried out at the organization’s Grozny office.
On the evening of January 22 in Makhachkala, unknown persons set fire to the car of the Memorial representative office in Dagestan. A Dagestani lawyer traveled to Chechnya in it to help the detained head of the local branch, Oyub Titiev.
On January 25, the Supreme Court of Chechnya upheld Titiev’s arrest. A few days later, at the identification of the head of the Chechen Memorial, the witness could not recognize him.
On February 6, lawyer Pyotr Zaikin, representing Titiev’s interests,filed a complaint about the inaction of the investigation: he has still not been notified about the presence or absence of recordings from surveillance cameras made on the day of his client’s arrest at the Kurchaloevsky District Department of Internal Affairs.
The next day, Titiev’s criminal case was transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Investigative Committee of Chechnya.

About us

Collection

The European Parliament called on Russia to release the head of the Chechen “Memorial” Oyub Titiev

The parliamentarians also insist on conducting “independent, objective and thorough investigations into the regrettable events in Chechnya.”

The head of the Grozny Memorial, Oyub Titiev, was detained on the morning of January 9. The next day, the police kicked Titiev’s relatives out of the 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 prohibited substances was allegedly found in his car. The court arrested the head of Memorial for two months.
On January 18, security forces also came to the owner of the premises in Grozny, which is rented by Memorial. They demanded to open the door to the organization’s office and convinced the woman that “she was wrong” because she was renting out the premises to human rights activists.
On January 19, a search was carried out at the organization’s Grozny office.
On the evening of January 22 in Makhachkala, unknown persons set fire to the car of the Memorial representative office in Dagestan. A Dagestani lawyer traveled to Chechnya in it to help the detained head of the local branch, Oyub Titiev.
On January 25, the Supreme Court of Chechnya upheld Titiev’s arrest. A few days later, at the identification of the head of the Chechen Memorial, the witness could not recognize him.
On February 6, lawyer Pyotr Zaikin, representing Titiev’s interests,filed a complaint about the inaction of the investigation: he has still not been notified about the presence or absence of recordings from surveillance cameras made on the day of his client’s arrest at the Kurchaloevsky District Department of Internal Affairs.
The next day, Titiev’s criminal case was transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Investigative Committee of Chechnya.