Despite this, the court extended the arrest of the head of the Chechen Memorial until May 9

Press Release, 06.03.2018

Today Grigory Yavlinsky flew to Grozny, Chechnya, to address the court in defense of Oyub Titiyev, head of the Chechen branch of the human rights society Memorial. Tityiev was accused of possession of drugs.

Previously, Yavlinsky as a candidate for the presidency of Russia asked the court to release Titiyev under his personal guarantee in accordance with Article 103 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Russia.

Speaking in the Staropromyslovsky District Court of Grozny, Yavlinsky promised that Titiyev would “not influence the witnesses or engage in illegal activities”. “For such a guarantee, I have long-term grounds connected with the fact that I have known about the activity of Oyub Titiyev for at least the past 12 years,” Yavlinsky said, noting that the work of the human rights activist had always been aimed at observing laws, the Constitution and the rights of citizens, including the rights of Chechens in different regions of Russia, who found themselves in “most difficult circumstances.”

This activity had earned the respect of the entire human rights community, Grigory Yavlinsky added.

At today’s hearings of the court there were also Yavlinsky’s confidants Svetlana Gannushkina, renown human rights activist, and Dmitry Muratov, publisher of the oppositional Novaya Gazeta paper, as well as Oleg Orlov, head of the programme “Hot Points of the Memorial”.

Despite this, the court extended the arrest to the head of the Chechen branch of Memorial until May 9.

According to human rights activists, neither the investigator nor the prosecutor brought any evidence that Titiyev would hide from the investigation or put pressure on the witnesses if he was given a different measure of restraint.

Oyub Titiyev was detained on January 9 and arrested for two months. According to the investigators, his car was stopped because of non-functioning dipped-beam headlights, and during the inspection the policemen found a parcel of marijuana in the cabin. Titiyev claimed that the policemen planted drugs to him: according to Titiyev, the car was inspected twice, and for the first time there were no witnesses. The Memorial linked the persecution with the human rights defenders’ investigation of the mass disappearance of people in Chechnya from the end of 2016.