Court refuses to commute verdicts to Magamadov and Isaev

The Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya has upheld the verdicts to Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev, convicted of aiding and abetting illegal armed formations (IAFs). The advocate Mark Alekseev intends to file a cassation appeal.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the brothers, Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev, were accused of aiding a militant from Aslan Byutukaev's grouping. On February 22, 2022, a court in Chechnya sentenced Salekh Magamadov to eight years, and Ismail Isaev – to six years in prison.

The brothers refuse to plead guilty and they believe that the case against them was fabricated because of hatred for their sexual orientation and their atheistic, oppositional views.

On May 11, the SC of the Chechen Republic left the verdicts to Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev unchanged, the Crisis Group "NC SOS" (Northern Caucasus SOS) has reported.

Mark Alekseev, the brothers' advocate who cooperates with the "NC SOS", treats the verdicts as illegal. "The defence is convinced that the first-instance court verdicts and the decision of the appeal body (the SC) are illegal and must be cancelled. The criminal case was considered with a large number of violations of the substantive and procedural law. We certainly intend to file a cassation appeal," the advocate has stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 11, 2022 at 10:00 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.