Termination of murder case against Umazhat Guseinova upheld

The appellate instance has recognized as legal the decision of the court in Makhachkala to stop the criminal prosecution of Tagir Velagaev, a pensioner of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), accused of murdering his ex-wife Umazhat Guseinova. The human rights project "Travmpunkt", whose advocates represented the victim in court, has reported this in its Telegram channel.

"Thus, the man escaped punishment for murdering his ex-wife," the publication says.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that September 1, 2022, the cassation court overturned the decision to release Tagir Velagaev from punishment and sent the case for retrial to the Supreme Court (SC) of Dagestan. In October of the same year, the SC again overturned the verdict. The cancellation is unjustified, since the expert's conclusion on Velagaev's state of passion was issued with violations, Arsen Shabanov, an advocate for the suffered party, asserts.

In March 2020, the Sovietsky District Court of Makhachkala sentenced Velagaev to two years of freedom restriction. The suffered party did not agree that the crime was committed in a state of passion, and in June 2020, the Dagestani SC sent the case for retrial back to the district court. On March 16, 2022, the SC released Velagaev from liability due to the expiration of the statute of limitations and mitigating circumstances.

Let us recall that on February 5, 2019, a quarrel broke out of Velagaev with his ex-wife, the 48-year-old Makhachkala resident, Umazhat Guseinova, during which the woman spoke about Velagaev's daughters from his new marriage. After this, Velagaev, according to investigators, struck her several times with the handle of a traumatic pistol, and then strangled her. Shamil Guseinov, a son of the murdered woman, believes that Velagaev escaped punishment thanks to his ties within the law enforcement system.