In Dagestan, renowned lawyer is accused of insulting inspectors from prosecutor's office

In Dagestan, a criminal case has been opened against the well-known lawyer Sapiyat Magomedova, accused by inspectors of the Prosecutor's Office of Khasavyurt of insulting them with swear words.

On August 17, Anvar Ukmasov, an inspector of the Investigatory Committee for Especially Relevant Cases at the Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan, invited lawyer Sapiyat Magomedov for presenting the necessary documents. The summon was based on the criminal case opened against her under the complaint of former inspectors of the Khasavyurt Prosecutor's Office Kadi Aidemirov and Arslankhan Arslankhanov.

The latter had asserted in their cassation complaint that on September 22, 2008, Ms Magomedova, in the presence of numerous witnesses, called them "potheads" and "bastards" and insulted them by doing so. Aidemirov and Arslankhanov specified their colleagues as witnesses.

Should Magomedova be found guilty, she is under threat of a fine, mandatory works for up to 120 hours, or corrective works for up to six months.

In her turn, Sapiyat Magomedov asserts that the inspectors' accusations stem from their discontent with her professional activity - at courts of various instances she had managed to successfully appeal against a number of criminal cases ran by Aidemirov and Arslankhanov.

According to her story, on September 22, 2008, she came to the Prosecutor's Office of Khasavyurt to acquaint Aidemirov with a warrant on defence of suspect Arsen Gadzhiev. In the corridor she met Arslankhanov who began claiming her for writing all sorts of petitions for the victims. She objected saying that she worked strictly within the bounds of the law. When Magomedova, as she said, presented the warrant to Aidemirov, he threw on her with swear words and told her to leave the Prosecutor's Office "while she is still whole and alive."

"Arslankhanov, who approached in the meantime, said with indignation: 'We're sick and tired of these advocates. They'll wait till I blow them all up. They write all nonsense. We'll gather materials and open a criminal case; just to teach a good lesson to all advocates," now Ms Magomedova recollects.

On that very day she sent cables to the General Public Prosecutors of Russia and Dagestan and filed applications to various instances demanding to open criminal cases against the inspectors for insulting her. Ravzat Magomedova was specified as a witness; on that day she was present in the building of the Prosecutor's Office. However, no criminal case was ever opened.

Sapiyat Magomedova said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the course of the process is an indication of the competence of public prosecutors. "This red tape lasts for five months already. They're just defending their corporate interests, but I clearly know that I had insulted nobody, it was me who had been insulted," she said.