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2022-08-11 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Complaint of a resident of Dagestan Shavri Gadzhiev filed with the ECtHR
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Lawyers of the Memorial Human Rights Center have filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights about the trial of Shavri Hajiyev, who was convicted in 2020 for financing terrorism. Russian courts have violated the requirements of the ECtHR related to the use of the testimony of anonymous witnesses, human rights activists say. 

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 23, 2020, the Moscow City Court upheld the sentence of Shavri Hajiyev, a resident of Dagestan, who was found guilty of financing terrorism. The requests of lawyers to reveal the identities of anonymous witnesses and to declare inadmissible such evidence as the reports of the security forces were not satisfied by the court.

On February 18, 2020, the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Gadzhiev to eight years in prison. The defense stated that Gadzhiev was not familiar with the alleged terrorist Magomed Magomadov, to whom, according to the investigation, he transferred 10 thousand rubles. 

On February 28, the Board of Appeals of the Supreme Court of Russia upheld the decision of the court of first instance on the liquidation of the "International Memorial," and it entered into force. On April 5, a court in Moscow upheld the decision to liquidate the Memorial Human Rights Center. On June 17, the team of the Human Rights Center "Memorial"* announced  the creation of a public organization  "Center for the Protection of Human Rights "Memorial" (without forming a legal entity).

The Human Rights Center "Memorial" sent a complaint to the ECHR in which it asks to recognize violations of the principles of a fair trial in the consideration of the case of Shavri Gadzhiev, who was convicted by the Moscow City Court for financing terrorism. According to lawyers, in the Hajiyev case, the requirements of the European Court of Human Rights related to the use of the testimony of anonymous witnesses were ignored, human rights activists of the center reported today in their Telegram channel "Full PC 2.0." 

“The practice of the ECtHR states that an accusation against a person cannot be based solely or in large part on the testimony of anonymous witnesses. The court also requires that the “anonymity” of witnesses is really necessary for their protection and the interests of justice, and their testimony is used with caution. This means that the authorities should additionally check the reliability of such testimony: for example, by conducting the procedure of “identification” of the accused by an anonymous witness in order to make sure that the witness and the accused really know each other,” Memorial’s lawyer pointed out.

The court "repeatedly" rejected the defense's motions to conduct "identification of the accused" or confrontation between Gadzhiev and witnesses. At the same time, all accusations against Hajiyev regarding the motive and intentions of the money transfer are based on the testimony of anonymous witnesses. The decisions of the Russian courts say that their testimony is “consistent, reliable and sufficient,” in contrast to the testimony of defense witnesses, which the courts treated “critically” and considered them to be completely refuted by “written evidence and testimony of witnesses for the prosecution,” cites Memorial CZPK lawyer's words.

Gadzhiev was a defendant in two cases on the financing of illegal armed groups: "each of the cases began with his abduction," according to the publication of the Telegram channel "Full PC 2.0." 

"In 2015, Shavri was kidnapped by law enforcement officers of Dagestan. They beat and tortured him with electric shocks. Under torture, the man confessed that he bought food and SIM cards, and also distributed small money to members of some illegal armed group. In the same year, he was convicted 2.5 years in prison, was released in July 2017...

Law enforcement officers detained Shavri Gadzhiev near his house in Makhachkala on November 9, 2018. Three weeks later, Gadzhiev's relatives learned that he had been taken to Moscow and taken into custody on charges of financing terrorism," the human rights activists reminded. 

It should be noted that in November 2019, Shavri Hajiyev’s lawyer indicated that the testimony of secret witnesses in the case of his client was not confirmed, and the defendant’s guilt was justified only by the assumption of the investigation. The Memorial HRC lawyer stated that she intends to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Gadzhiev's interests.

On June 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws establishing a deadline for the execution of ECtHR judgments in the Russian Federation. Judgments of the ECtHR issued after 15 March 2022 are not enforceable in Russia. Changes were also made to certain provisions of the procedural legislation of the Russian Federation regarding the revision of judicial acts adopted by Russian courts on the basis of judgments of the ECtHR.

The co-author of the initiative, the head of the State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov, explained that "ECHR rulings will no longer be the basis for reviewing decisions made by Russian courts."
Posted by badanov 2022-08-11 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ]  Top










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