First Two Prosecution Witnesses Help Case of Ingush Seven, Their Lawyers Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 8 – The first two prosecution witnesses in the trial of the seven leaders of the March 2019 Ingush protest were peppered with more than 100 questions but gave answers that helped the case the defense has mounted more than the one prosecutors have insisted on.

            The two testified in a closed session at a courtroom in the Russian city of Essentuki. The first, a  police officer, said he and other siloviki were given “contradictory orders,” something Dzhabrail Kuriyev, a lawyer for one of the defendants, argues shows that officials were engaged in a provocation  (fortanga.org/2020/12/svideteli-obvineniya-rasskazali-o-sobytiyah-marta-2019-goda-v-magase/).

            At one and the same time, the policeman testified, he and his fellow officers were told not to allow any on the square to leave, but were also told to direct people in the square to do just that. According to the lawyer, this constituted a form of entrapment because those who followed this second order would be detained because of the first.

            The police officer also testified that all participants had passed through a metal detector to ensure that they did not bring in any weapons and that the square itself had been searched immediately before the protest was slated to begin and no weapons were found there. Thus, suggestions that the demonstrators had weapons are baseless.

            The second prosecution witness also helped the defense, lawyers said. A participant in the meeting, he said that the authorities had used a flash grenade above the heads of Ingush participants who were engaged in Muslim prayer. That too, the lawyers said, was provocative and created exactly the situation the authorities have since exploited.

            If these reports are accurate, the prosecution has an even weaker case than many had assumed; and the fact that such statements are leaking out of a supposedly closed court means that everyone in Ingushetia is going to know that, something that will increase anger and the likelihood of more protests if the Russian judges go ahead an convict the defendants.