Witnesses for prosecution interrogated during trial of human rights activist Boliev in Dagestan

Today, on March 24, another session of the Khasavyurt town court hearing on the case of the human rights activist Osman Boliev accused of storage, acquisition and wearing of arms took place in Dagestan. Salimat Kadyrova, Boliev's lawyer, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by telephone about the proceedings.

In the morning, at the beginning of the court session, the prosecution announced that the court would hear witnesses for the prosecution, namely, captains Vitali Shamber and Konstantin Novitskiy from the criminal investigation department of the RF MIA mobile group, who had taken part in the detention and interrogation of Osman Boliev on November 15 of last year, as well as the search witnesses who had been present during the discovery of a grenade.

In the first half of the day, the court, upon the request of the prosecutor's office, heard a witness who had not been announced previously. That was an officer from the Khasavyurt town internal affairs department who, according to Salimat Kadyrova, introduced himself as "examination inspector." That officer had compiled the report on the personal search of Osman Boliev, detained for an administrative offence, in the course of which a grenade was discovered in the detainee's coat, which he confirmed in court.

"I asked the witness why he had failed to sign the report and the militiaman answered that it had been his mistake. After such words the prosecutor got nervous and prompted the witness that there is a separate report on the refusal by Boliev to sigh the search report. The prosecutor said that the report on the refusal to sign was part, continuation of the search report," relates the defence lawyer. "The witness himself, prior to the prosecutor's prompt, did not hold that view." The lawyer protested the interference of the prosecutor into the witness interrogation by the defence.

"The prosecutor nervously shouted that witness had never said that failure to sign the report was his mistake and that his testimony should be corrected," says Kadyrova. Since the other witnesses for the prosecution were absent, after the examination of the "examination inspector", the judge announced a break until 14.00.

"After the break," continues the lawyer, "they examined captain Vitali Shamber, who was the person who had detained Osman and put handcuffs and a bag on his head in the car after detaining him. Naturally, he does not recognize the bag, he has been prepared beforehand. Still, there were contradictions in his testimony. While earlier, in his report the detainment of Boliev was indicated approximately at 17:15 on October 15, now Shamber stated that he had been detained between 14.00 and 15.00. It is better for us, because, according to the report on the personal search upon administrative detainment, the grenade was discovered on Boliev at 18.00. If he was detained at 15.00, does it mean that he had been walking around the militia station for three hours with a grenade?"

"Talking abut the circumstances of the detainment, the officer again changed his testimony. Now, according to what Shamber claimed, Osman Boliev had been running towards their militia car in the vicinity of the Khasavyurt bus station and, having noticed it, he got frightened and was confused. The militia officers asked him to produce his documents and Boliev got indignant. The captain could not say, what words he used to express his indignation. Then, according to the witness for prosecution, О. Boliev tried to run away from the militia officers, but managed to get away only by 3-4 meters, after which he was detained and brought to the town militia station. The handcuffs, according to V. Shamber, were locked at Boliev's front, while two witnesses examined in the court earlier had said that at the back."

"Today, Vitali Shamber signed his recognition that he had been warned about criminal responsibility for giving false testimony. In this document his signature is quite different from that in the other documents in the case file which he clams to have signed. These are the Shamber's report on Osman Boliev's detainment for an administrative offence, Shamber's explanation of the fact of discovering a grenade during the search of the detainee (although, according to him, he did not officially take part in the search and is not mentioned in the report) and the report on examination of witness V. Shamber within the criminal case against О. Boliev. In the explanation and in the report, the militia captain's signature is one kind, in the report on examination it a different one and today in the witness' recognition it is yet another. I come to the conclusion that none of the documents in the file have been signed by Shamber himself. The genuine signature is the one he gave in court. Therefore I filed a request to app
oint graphology examination for establishing who, Shamber or some other person, had signed the above documents. The judge considered the application on the spot, without adjourning to the deliberation room, and rejected it on the ground that the militia officer had confirmed his signatures and that was sufficient, although I stated that Shamber was lying. The court, obviously, is not willing to bring to criminal responsibility the persons who framed this criminal case," concludes Salimat Kadyrova.

No other witnesses for the prosecution appeared in court. The next session is appointed for Monday, March 26, at 10.00. It is expected that witnesses for the prosecution will continue to be examined. Sergey Brovchenko, Moscow lawyer of the human rights activist Osman Boliev, has stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he intends to fly to Dagestan on Sunday night to take part in the trial.

For reference, the court trial on the case of Osman Boliev, head of the public organization "Romashka", resumed on March 16, after a month's break connected with medical treatment of the defendant. The defence represented by lawyers Ahmed Umayev and Salimat Kadyrova filed an application to exclude from the list of evidences the report on Boliev's search because it had not been signed either by the persons conducting the search or by Boliev. Salimat Kadyrova stated that "it is obvious that the evidence was obtained with violations of legislative requirements and have no legal force. If the report is not signed it is not valid." The court rejected the defence application.

Lawyer Ahmed Umayev states "I am surprised with the judge's approach because, since the document is not signed, it is not valid and, therefore, the case is not worth a damn. It is not clear what the prosecution hopes for."

On March 16, Arsen Khasaev, officer of the criminal investigation department in Khasavyurt, was examined as a witness for the prosecution. He stated the he had been present during the Boliev's search when, in the presence of the search witnesses, a grenade was confiscated. However, when lawyer Salimat Kadyrova asked him, why Khasaev's name was not mentioned in the report, he was unable to answer, saying that he "remembers nothing."

Earlier, on March 13, Osman Boliev was released from custody upon a petition of the defence. Lawyer Sergey Brovchenko who defends Boliev with the assistance of the "Public Verdict" foundation, the human rights activist was illegally placed in custody. "The report on the detainment has not been signed even by the person who detained him and found that ammunition was in his pockets. He never gave any testimony during investigation, except once about nothing," said the defence lawyer to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Osman Boliev was detained on November 15, 2005 traffic militia officers under the pretext of checking information about his car which they claimed resembled the one registered as stolen. However, on the way to the Khasavyurt militia station, Boliev's car was stopped by officers of the RF MIA operational search mobile unit (RF MIA OSMU). The traffic militia officers handed Boliev over to the mobile unit officers and left. The latter, in their turn, placed О. Boliev into their car, put a bag over his head, handcuffed him and brought to the internal affairs unit of Khasavyurt. According to the human rights activist, they were torturing him at the militia station for several hours, then searched his and "discovered" a dismantled grenade on him. Initially, they tried to accuse Boliev of membership in an illegal armed unit.

"Osman is only armed with a pen. It is a terrible arm which he used to write to the European Court. I am sure that this is the reason why they initiated a criminal case against him," stated Sergey Brovchenko to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "Immediately after his detainment on November 15 last year, he was severely beaten and tortured for four hours. He lost conscience several times. The militia officers, while beating him, said that "his behaviour is wrong." Then they found a fuse and the body of a grenade in two pockets of his coat," related the lawyer.

Lawyer Salimat Kadyrova told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she had applied to the Khasavyurt prosecutor's office with a request to initiate criminal proceedings against the Dagestan power officers who had been torturing and beating her defendant. However, as it follows from the response of the prosecutor's office, those facts had not been confirmed in the course of a check.

In the opinion of the defence lawyers, the prosecution files contain a number of strange circumstances. "Firstly, the search was conducted not on the place where Boliev was detained, but at the militia station. Logically speaking, Boliev, when he was following the traffic militia car, he could have got rid of the grenade parts, but he failed to do so," runs the statement of the "Public Verdict" foundation. "Secondly, the documents submitted to the prosecutor's office lacked a description of the grenade. Thirdly, the documents submitted to the prosecutor's office for initiating a criminal case lacked examination of the search witnesses (such materials of examination were submitted only several days later). Fourthly, the documents submitted to the prosecutor's office for initiating a criminal case lacked the materials on administrative detainment."

A number of experts think that the cause of the Boliev's charge has been his professional activity. The "Romashka" public organization headed by Boliev has been initiator of notorious court proceedings on the case of kidnapping of Dagestan resident Yaraly Israilov on October 19, 2004 by officers of Khasavyurt department of internal affairs. Boliev, along with Karina Moskalenko, head of International Protection Facilitation Centre, compiled and sent a complaint on the case to the European Court on Human Rights. In addition, Boliev publicly disclosed the fact of murder of Summai Abdurashitova, a 6-year old girl, by Dagestan law enforcement officers during a secret operation on arresting suspected criminals. She was killed on March 14, 2005 in her bed in the village of Solnechnoye, Khasavyurt district, by a fragment of a large-calibre shell. A complaint on the case was also filed in the European Court.

The "Memorial" human rights centre stated on March 16 that "the criminal prosecution of Osman Boliev in Dagestan is clearly politically motivated."