Court refuses to exclude key proof from Titiev's case

The Prosecutor's Office has failed to explain the discrepancy in case materials, which arises doubts regarding the key proof of the guilt of Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial"; nevertheless, the court has ignored the defence's arguments. The arguments of the prosecution against the rejected defence's motions are untenable, the representative of the HRC "Memorial" has stated.

On January 28, the court rejected all the defence's motions, in particular, the examination of video surveillance cameras and the investigative experiment which could re-create the situation, in which the policeman found marijuana in Titiev's car.

His defence believes that the judge will continue rejecting all its motions.

Galina Tarasova, a lawyer of the "Hot Spots" Programme of the HRC "Memorial", has also noted that she has no hopes for the objectivity of the court.

"All Titiev's colleagues believe that the case was falsified; and he is persecuted for his human rights activities. Mass violations in running the case are objective confirmations of the fact," she said.