Ingush activists' defence asks court to acquit them

On November 9, during the parties' debate at the trial held in the city of Yessentuki, the advocates of the Ingush activists, accused of creating an extremist community, delivered their speeches. They asked the Kislovodsk City Court, which is considering the case, to pass an acquittal, since, in their opinion, the crimes imputed to their clients have not been proved in any way.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that since November 2020, the above court in the Stavropol Territory has been considering the case of the Ingush protest leaders, accused of creating an extremist community. On November 8, debates began at the trial; the prosecution asked the court to sentence Akhmed Barakhoev, Musa Malsagov and Malsag Uzhakhov to nine years in prison each, and Ismail Nalgiev, Bagaudin Khautiev and Barakh Chemurziev – to eight years in prison each. As to Zarifa Sautieva, the prosecutor asked the court for 7.5 years in prison.

On November 9, a travel session of the above court was held in Yessentuki, at which the defendants' advocates were given the floor.

In his speech, Andrei Sabinin, the advocate for Ismail Nalgiev, treated the case of the Ingush activists as "a confrontation of a small nation with the entire state machine." The defender claimed that the clashes of those gathered in Magas in the morning on March 27, 2019, with law enforcers occurred "because of the latter's own provocation."

"There would have been no rally's response if there had been no squeezing out of people. There was no coordinated 'violence'; therefore, speaking that the seven defendants now in the dock had 'organized' it is fundamentally wrong. There are no proofs of 'organizing violence' in the case files; on the contrary, there's only evidence of attempts to keep the protest within a peaceful channel," the advocate has stated.

In his speech, Magomed Bekov, the advocate for Musa Malsagov, has noted that the materials of the criminal case "contain not a single proof confirming the charges brought against not only Malsagov, but also against other defendants."

"Both the witnesses for the prosecution and for the defence interrogated during the trial, as well as the suffered servicemen of the 'Rosgvardiya' (Russian National Guard), failed to report anything significant in their testimonies on the charges brought against Musa Malsagov and other defendants; about any use of violence against any state servants on March 27, 2019," Mr Bekov has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 10, 2021 at 07:18 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.