From Human Right Watch

A Chechen court is scheduled to issue the verdict against Oyub Titiev, a human rights defender with the Russian group Memorial, on March 18, 2019, Human Rights Watch said today. The bogus drug possession case against Titiev, based on fabricated evidence, is politically motivated and aims to stifle reporting on human rights abuses in Chechnya.

Titiev, 61, has been in custody since his arrest on January 9, 2018. In the months before his arrest, he was gathering information about enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and secret detention by security forces in Chechnya. The prosecution has asked for a four-year prison sentence. The government should drop the case against Titiev, vacate any verdict, and allow Memorial and other independent groups to carry out their human rights work in the republic.

“That this groundless case has gone so far is a colossal injustice to Titiev and an embarrassment to Russia’s criminal justice system,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Oyub Titiev should never have had to spend a minute in custody. But even at this late stage, the authorities should immediately free him and correct the injustice.”

Titiev began working for Memorial in 2001. He has led Memorial’s work in Chechnya since 2009, after the kidnapping and murder of his colleague Natalia Estemirova. Since then, under the leadership of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s governor, local authorities, and their proxies have hounded, detained, beaten and vilified human rights defenders and even torched their offices. Titiev’s prosecution is aimed at punishing him for his human rights work and forcing Memorial completely out of Chechnya, Human Rights Watch said.

From the moment of Titiev’s arrest, when police planted a bag of marijuana in his car, through the trial, Chechen authorities have violated Titiev’s rights to liberty, security, and due process. On the day of his arrest, police initially told Titiev’s lawyer that he was not in their custody, denying him access for seven hours.

After arresting him and taking him to the station, police took Titiev and his car back to the spot on the road where they had stopped him earlier, and faked a replay of the discovery of marijuana in front of people the police summoned as “witnesses,” and collected and packaged the questionable “evidence.” The prosecution also produced a dubious witness who claimed to have seen Titiev smoking a joint in Grozny in November 2017, though marijuana use in public in Chechnya is unheard of.

In court, the presiding judge refused all defense motions to exclude the prosecution’s evidence, despite the compelling circumstances that indicate it was fabricated and unreliable, Human Rights Watch said.

Kadyrov publicly called Titiev a drug addict and a traitor for working for an “enemy” organization.

Memorial was the last human rights organization that still maintained a presence in Chechnya and exposed enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and other egregious abuses. Shortly after Titiev’s arrest, one of Memorial’s offices, about an hour from Grozny, was torched, as was the car of one of Memorial’s drivers in another location. Chechen police also raided Memorial’s office in Chechnya and harassed the landlady for renting to a “subversive” organization.

Following Titiev’s arrest, Memorial had to suspend its work in Chechnya and evacuate all local staff for security reasons.

“Once Kadyrov set his sights on Titiev, his jailing is yet another demonstration of the lack of respect for rule of law and human rights in Chechnya, and Moscow’s tolerance of that situation,” Denber said. “Titiev should be freed immediately and action taken in Moscow to restore respect for human rights in Chechnya.”

See more background on Titiev at Human Right Watch.