Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] An acquittal for Abdulmumin Gadzhiev was unlikely, but given the lack of evidence of the charges, there was hope for a minimum sentence, so the court’s decision turned out to be unexpectedly harsh, said friends of the Dagestan journalist. In their opinion, an appeal against the verdict will not lead to acquittal or a significant reduction in the sentence.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, on June 22, the prosecutor demanded that the journalist of the Chernovik newspaper Abdulmumin Gadzhiev, the head of the Ansar charitable foundation Abubakar Rizvanov and Kemal Tambiev be sentenced to 19 years in prison. The prosecution did not present convincing evidence in court, the defendants said in their final plea. Today the court sentenced Abdulmumin Gadzhiev to 17 years in prison, Abubakar Rizvanov to 18 years in prison, Kemal Tambiev to 17 years and 6 months in prison. Lawyers for the convicted said that the court's decision will be appealed .
Continued from Page 1
The editor of the Chernovik newspaper, Abdulmumin Gadzhiev, as well as the head of the Ansar charitable foundation, Abubakar Rizvanov, and Kemal Tambiev, have been in custody since June 2019 on charges of financing terrorism. Investigators believe that they collected 68 million rubles and 200,000 dollars for the terrorists under the pretext of building mosques and helping poor Muslims. The investigation connects the defendants with the Dagestani preacher and founder of the Islamic foundation "Mukhajirun" Israil Akhmednabiyev, known as Abu Umar Sasitlinsky. The defendants do not admit guilt. Details of the case are collected in the Caucasian Knot material “Golunov number two”: the main thing about the case of Abdulmumin Gadzhiev .”
The acquittal against Gadzhiev was almost incredible, but even against this background, the sentence handed down today was unexpected and harsh, says Gadzhiev’s friend Kurban. “I thought that they would give me 12 to 15 years. I didn’t even think that they would be acquitted. But the sentence announced was unexpected,” Kurban noted.
The reaction of society will be obvious with the understanding that the verdict against Gadzhiev is unfair, he believes. “The reaction is obvious. Everyone understood that there was no point in seeking justice in a Russian court,” Kurban noted. In his opinion, there is only a small hope that the appellate court will reduce the term of imprisonment. “I think that upon appeal, the term will remain the same. Although I sincerely hope that the term will somehow be reduced,” Kurban explained to the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
Didn’t Hajiyev’s friend Huseyn hope for that? that the court would pronounce an acquittal, but the announced term was unexpected for him as well. “The hope was that they would give me a short sentence,” noted Huseyn. He is confident that society will react extremely negatively to such a long period of time and this will lead to an even greater loss of trust in the authorities on the part of society. An appeal against the verdict will not significantly affect the sentence, but can only reduce it by several months, he believes.
The verdict was expected, but there was hope for a minimum term, Gadzhiev’s friend Magomed told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
“You always want to believe in the best, to believe in a miracle, even if we are talking about the absolute innocence of a person. There was hope for recognition of the obvious - innocence. Or, at least, a conviction for a minimum term, which could be considered six years in prison,” shared Gadzhiev’s friend, who was present today at the announcement of the verdict in the Southern District Military Court, expressed his opinion.
He believes that after such a harsh sentence is passed, part of society will express its indignation, and some of its representatives will change their opinion both in relation to the judicial system and in relation to the criminal prosecution of Gadzhiev. “The healthy part of society will be indignant. For some, this will be an epiphany,” he noted. At the same time, if the appeal court reduces the term, it will be insignificant, Magomed believes.
Despite the innocence of Gadzhiev, Rizvanov and Tambiev, which they actually proved in court, there was no expectation of their complete acquittal, Gadzhiev’s friend Yusuf told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
“Despite the fact that during this entire trial their innocence was repeatedly proven, I still personally had no expectations that they would be acquitted,” he explained. He explained that this was also due to the fact that he had not heard about the acquittals pronounced in the Southern District Military Court.
The former chairman of the Southern District Military Court, Mikhail Ptitsyn, in October 2020, when transferring to a position in the Moscow City Court, said that over 10 years, judges of the district and subordinate garrison military courts had acquitted 115 people. “Of these, 15 people were acquitted by the district court,” 1rnd quoted him as saying on October 7, 2020.
Gadzhiev's finding guilty was expected, but Yusuf hoped that the court would limit himself to a minimum term, realizing the absurdity of the prosecution's arguments. “There was hope that they would give no more than ten years and the guys would get away with just such a minimum term. I prepared myself for the fact that they would receive such a long sentence and the court would not show any mercy,” Yusuf said.
The public reaction to the verdict is mostly negative. Yusuf made such conclusions based on an analysis of social networks. “I already see dozens, and maybe even hundreds of publications from different people, statuses on social networks about the injustice of this verdict,” Yusuf said. According to him, society perceived this sentence as “unfair”, “cruel” and even “punitive”.
“I mean the normal, sober, adequate part of society. Naturally, there are also inadequate people who may perceive this sentence as fair,” he clarified. A similar decision regarding Gadzhiev, Rizvanov and Tambiev will play in favor of public mistrust in the Russian judicial system, says Gadzhiev’s friend.
Friends of Abdulmumin Gadzhiev did not expect an acquittal, but friends hoped that several articles that were in the indictment would be removed and a sentence not exceeding 5-6 years would be left, said Gadzhiev’s friend Muhammad . In his opinion, the reaction of society to the verdict against Gadzhiev, Rizvanov and Tambiev will be expressed in disappointment and grief and nothing more.
During the trial, the defense was able to prove the innocence of their clients, and those who watched the trial probably hoped for a lenient sentence, Muhammad suggested. He expressed hope that the appellate court will review the decision and reduce the term by removing some articles from the charges.
The guilty verdict against Gadzhiev was expected, although the term itself, which was approved by the court, was unexpected for many, also believes his friend Hamid , who was present in the Southern District Military Court when the verdict was pronounced. “A complete acquittal was incredible, but I expected a sentence of 5-6 years, not 17 years,” Hamid noted.
A negative reaction from society was not long in coming - indignant comments about the verdict began to appear on social networks almost immediately after the end of the trial, he said. However, such a reaction is only temporary, Hamid believes. The appellate instance, in his opinion, will only slightly reduce the sentence by removing several years; there can be no talk of a complete acquittal of Gadzhiev, Tambiev and Rizvanov. “The maximum possible is a sentence of up to 10 years, but the court is unlikely to make such a decision,” Hamid suggested.
Abdulmumin Gadzhiev's friend Arsen had expectations that the court would sentence Gadzhiev to no more than 10 years. However, the sentence handed down by the court today was unexpected in its severity, he noted.
“The term of 17 years, of course, amazed me. I am very surprised by this term,” Arsen told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent. According to him, the negative reaction of society regarding the verdict is evidenced by the many negative comments on social networks. “I see a lot of comments where people are shocked by the decision. They talk about the unfoundedness of the decision,” said Arsen.
The verdict against Gadzhiev will serve as another reason for distrust in government institutions and distrust in the judicial system, Arsen suggested. The decision of the appeal court, in his opinion, “will change little,” but will only shorten the period by several months.
A complete acquittal of Abdulmumin Gadzhiev was impossible, since the articles under which he was accused were very serious, noted Gadzhiev’s friend Ilyas, who previously worked with him in the weekly Chernovik.
Despite the great resonance surrounding Gadzhiev’s case, the verdict did not attract the attention it deserved, he believes. “The matter is very loud, not only on the scale of the republic, but also on the scale of the country, but practically none of the media personalities of Dagestan spoke out on this topic,” he noted. Such silence is due primarily to fear, but if a person expresses the opinion that there is no evidence of the guilt of the accused, about the absurdity of the criminal case, there will be no consequences for this, he noted. “There is no prosecution for such words, but people are still afraid to say something,” he told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
Gadzhiev’s colleagues consider his criminal case to be political persecution and hold weekly single pickets in his support in the center of Makhachkala - next to the complex of buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB Directorate for Dagestan. According to colleagues, Gadzhiev is being persecuted due to the fact that the Chernovik newspaper voiced “inconvenient questions” to the authorities and security forces, according to the Caucasian Knot report “Chernovik”: threats, criminal cases, murder of the editor-in-chief.”
|
