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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Defense of those convicted of Makhachkala riots prepares appeal against verdict |
| 2025-03-08 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [KavkazUzel] All those convicted in the airport case, sentenced in early March by the Kirov District Court, pleaded guilty in order to receive more lenient sentences, and the defense decided to appeal the sentences. The courts' decisions in the airport case are practically identical, human rights activists emphasized. As reported by the "Caucasian Knot", in October the Kirov District Court in Stavropol Krai  began considering  the case of Maksud Shcheikhgasanov, Ismail Ibakov, Shamil Mirzabekov, Magomed Khalilbegov and Rabadan Rabadanov, accused of involvement in the riots at the Makhachkala airport. Ibakov's lawyer stated that his client partially  admitted  guilt. The court sentenced them to terms ranging from eight years to nine years and four months. According to investigators, by January 16, 28 criminal cases against 135 people accused of participating in the riots at the Makhachkala airport had been sent to court. Another seven people, including three alleged organizers of the riots, were put on the wanted list. In February 2024, relatives of the accused appealed to Putin with a request for leniency.  The lawyers of those convicted in the airport case, whose sentence was handed down in the Kirov District Court, will file appeals, said lawyer Bashir Abdurakhmanov, who defended Ismail Ibakov. "All the convicts have decided to challenge the sentence," he told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. By the end of the trial, all the defendants had pleaded guilty, he said. "There was information that if you don't plead guilty, you're given a harsher punishment. That's why everyone chose to plead guilty," the lawyer said. Among those who admit guilt during the trial, there is a special category of people: those who did not commit a crime, internally disagree with it, but are forced to admit guilt, said lawyer Kaloy Akhilgov. "Forced because they are not ready to sit in prison/colony for a term twice as long as they can get for confessing. Forced because they understand that not admitting and defending their truth in court is fraught with a much harsher conviction than for confessing. Forced because the system is such that if you end up in a pretrial detention center, the probability of acquittal tends to zero. And these people are not ready to sit for an idea, for principles, because their time is more valuable to them than principles," he wrote on his Telegram channel on March 3. Abdurakhmanov also said that he had filed an appeal against the sentence of Makhmud Dzhavatkhanov, convicted in the airport case by the Oktyabrsky District Court of Stavropol Krai. "But the date for the hearing has not yet been set," he said. Chairman of the Dagestan Public Monitoring Commission Shamil Khadulaev noted that sentences of 8-10 years in prison have become common for those convicted in the airport case. "Everything is being done as if from a carbon copy," he told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. The head of the Sova Research Center*, Alexander Verkhovsky, noted that if the events at the Uytash airport themselves fall under the definition of riots motivated by national hatred, the plot of the case against all defendants is the same, although the charges against individuals must be individual. |
| Posted by:badanov |