A court in Chechnya extended the arrest of Oyub Titiev for another three months

The Shali City Court extended the arrest of the head of the Grozny branch of the Memorial human rights center in Chechnya, Oyub Titiev, until March 22, 2019. This was reported in the telegram channel “The Case of Oyub Titiev|HRC “Memorial””.

The term of the new arrest will be counted from December 22. The court sided with prosecutor Baitaeva, who asked to extend the arrest until March 22, 2019, explaining that the investigation of the case had not yet been completed, and the previous grounds for detention had not disappeared

Lawyer Pyotr Zaikin asked to change the measure of restraint to house arrest. According to him, Titiev, who spent almost a year in a pre-trial detention center, has no penalties, did not try to interfere with the investigation, has positive characteristics and introduces his cellmates to sports.

The judge read out the materials of the case, according to which, despite the positive characteristics, on January 9 a criminal case was opened against Oyub, then a preventive measure was chosen, which was then repeatedly extended.

Zaikin once again mentioned that the report on the basis of which Oyuba was elected and then his arrest was extended is not supported by any facts. On the basis of what operational information detective Manzhikov compiled this report is unknown.

Previously, the court refused to release Titiev on the guarantee of the chairman of the Civic Assistance Committee and member of the Council of the Memorial Human Rights Center Svetlana Gannushkina and the leader of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky.

• The head of the Grozny branch of the Memorial Human Rights Center, Oyub Titiev, was detained on January 9 - the police allegedly found a bag of marijuana in his car and took the man to the department. Two days later, Titiev was arrested . The human rights activist himself claims that the drugs were planted on him.
• On January 19, a search was carried out at the organization’s Grozny office. During the investigation, police found cigarette butts that looked like cigarettes that had been gutted and then filled with something. Later, an expert from the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs came to the conclusion that the two seized cigarettes contained marijuana. However, none of the Memorial employees smoke.
• On March 29, the investigator refused to grant the request of Titiev’s lawyer to request recordings from surveillance cameras. According to the human rights activist, they should show how the police first took him to the police department, and then took him back to the road, where they staged a search of the car and the discovery of drugs.