Judge Ramazanov who acquitted Boliev: "I resigned under the pressure of Dagestan SC"

Yarali Ramazanov, judge of Khasavyurt town court of Dagestan, has confirmed today to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that yesterday, June 19, he had to sign his resignation under the pressure of Anvar Magomedov, chairman of the Supreme Court of Dagestan.

According to Ramazanov, yesterday he was summoned to A. Magomedov, chairman of the Supreme Court of Dagestan in Makhachkala. At 11 o'clock he was met in the office of the chief of the republic's judicial system by Magomedov himself and the "zone" judge to whom Khasavyurt was subordinated. The chairman of the Supreme Court demanded that Yarali Ramazanov should sign an application to resign. "He claimed that I had deceived him," this was the only justification of the demand, according to the judge.

"No reasons for wishing my resignation were given to me, they did not accuse me of anything. No claims. They did not want any explanations, did not listen to me, interrupted me," says Y. Ramazanov. He yielded to the demand of the chairman of Dagestan Supreme Court and signed an application on resigning the post of federal judge.

Yarali Ramazanov thinks that the reason for such action of A. Magomedov with regard to him was the May 18 acquittal of the human rights activist Osman Boliev. "Trouble started from the very beginning of the proceedings on the case. Pressure. They dropped hints that the man must be sentenced. They had decided in advance that he was guilty and was a bandit rather than a human rights activist."

The final decision on the Y. Ramazanov's application to resign will be taken by the judicial qualification chamber of the Republic of Dagestan. "The commission will probably consider my application in July because its chairperson is now on leave," says the judge. Meanwhile, Yarali Ramazanov is turning over his duties and, starting from Monday June 26, he is due to go on leave granted upon his application by the chairman of Khasavyurt town court. However, Anvar Magomedov, as Ramazanov asserts, declared that he was not going on leave, and "what has been granted will be cancelled."

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has not managed to get comments at the Supreme Court of Dagestan because the chairman was out and his deputy was busy.

For reference, the prosecutor's office of Khasavyurt has disagreed with the acquittal by Yarali Ramazanov on the case of Osman Boliev, head of "Romashka," Dagestan regional human rights organization, charged with illegal acquisition, storage and carrying of firearms, and appealed against the verdict the text of which was published in full by the "Caucasian Knot" on May 30. No consideration of the state prosecution cassation protest by the Dagestan Supreme Court has been appointed yet.

Even before the ruling was announced, Osman Boliev and Sergei Brovchenko, his lawyer, had applied to the RF General Prosecutor's office, the prosecutor's office of the republic of Dagestan, the Supreme Court and the judicial qualification chamber of Dagestan with a request to bring the magistrate of section No. 35 of Khasavyurt, who had falsified the decision with regard to Boliev, to criminal and disciplinary responsibility. They also had launched an appeal to the town prosecutor against the decision to decline the initiation of a criminal case on torture of Osman Boliev described in the article by Anna Politkovskaya in the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper in February this year.

On June 11, the investigating officer of Khasavyurt department of internal affairs initiated a new criminal case against O. Boliev. This time, he is charged with illegal acquisition of firearms, i.e. Kalashnikov gun, and joining an illegal armed unit dislocated in the city of Grozny, Chechen Republic." Osman Boliev stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he denied the charges against him. In his opinion, the new case had been initiated by the law-enforcement officers in order to avoid punishment for the previous case which fell to pieces in court.

For reference, on November 15, 2005, Osman Boliev, resident of Khasavyurt, stood by his brother's car parked near his house. He was approached by traffic militiamen who, claiming that the Boliev's car resembled a car reported to be stolen, suggested that he should follow them to the militia station for checking. Boliev took the wheel to follow the traffic militia car in the direction of the local unit of internal affairs. However, on the way there the Boliev's car was stopped by soldiers of the RF MIA Mobile investigation squad. The traffic militia officers handed Boliev over to the mobile squad militiamen and drove off. In their turn, the latter placed O. Boliev into their car, put a sack over his head, handcuffed him and took him to the Khasavyurt department of internal affairs. According to the human rights activist, while in militia, they had been torturing him for several hours, then searched him and "discovered" a dismantled grenade on him.

Initially, they tried to charge Boliev with involvement in an illegal armed unit. On November 16, 2005, already the next day following the arrest, the "Dagestan" news agency, citing the Dagestan MIA press-service, reported that O. Boliev, active participant of illegal armed units, had been detained in Khasavyurt. According to law enforcement agencies, he was member of the group of Abdulsheikhov Arslanbek killed in Moscow's "Nord-Ost" theatre in 2003. The report also ran that security agencies possessed information on the detainee's involvement in combat actions against federal forces on the territory of the Chechen Republic and that during arrest of the "militant," "an RGD-5 grenade with a fuse was found on him and confiscated."

"Boliev was searched not on the spot of the arrest but in the department of internal affairs building. Logically thinking, when following the traffic militia car, Boliev could have easily got rid of the grenade parts, but he did not do this, stated the "Public Verdict" foundation. The documents submitted to the prosecutor's office for the initiation of criminal proceedings lacked the grenade description, interrogations of the witnesses who attended the search (the interrogation materials were submitted only a few days later), and the materials of the administrative detention." Notably, while the investigator of the Boliev's case sent an GRD-5 grenade for expert examination, the expert returned his opinion on the "RGN (Afghani) grenade." Lawyer Salimat Kadyrova, while talking to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, assumed that the grenade had been changed due to the fact that it had already been "exposed" somewhere.

A number of experts think that the main cause of the Boliev's detention and 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 the 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."