19 December 2018, 16:52
Judge wouldn't explain CER refusal for Zhalaudi Geriev
Alaudi Musaev, the advocate of Zhalaudi Geriev, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, intends to appeal against the court judgement not to apply the conditional early relief (CER) to his client, noting that the judge failed to explain the motifs of his ruling to the defence.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 18, the Naur District Court ruled to apply CER to Zhalaudi Geriev, but on September 28, Maxim Dushin, Deputy Prosecutor General of Chechnya appealed against the ruling, and on November 8, the Supreme Court of Chechnya overturned the Geriev's CER. On December 18, the Naur District Court of Chechnya refused, at its travel session, held at Colony No. 2, to apply CER to Geriev.
In September 2016, Zhalaudi Geriev was sentenced to three years of imprisonment on the charge of marijuana possession. The defence insists on the illegality of the verdict. The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" had declared Geriev to be a political prisoner.
According to Alaudi Musaev, the woman-representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as UFSIN) asked the court not to apply CER to Geriev, because the colony administration found it inappropriate.
"I tried to find out the grounds for the refusal. Geriev has not a single penalty in effect; on the contrary, he has three rewards. The prosecutor supported the UFSIN's representative; they justified their opinion by the fact that Zhalaudi Geriev had not confess to the crime and not repented. However, they failed to cite the provision of the law prescribing this. Such legal norm doesn't exist. My client can't confess to what he never committed. He insists that it was not he who committed the crime, but the crime was committed against him," the advocate has explained.
According to Musaev, the judge agreed with his position; however, refused to satisfy the defence's petition to apply CER to Geriev for other reasons that he refused to specify.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 19, 2018 at 10:24 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Author: Rasul Magomedov Source: CK correspondent
