Kadyrov on trial: stage one (weekly review)
By Vadim Borshchev, special to Prague Watchdog
At the trial which ended in Moscow’s Tverskoi district court on October 6, the Memorial rights group chairman Oleg Orlov and witnesses for his defence presented a huge volume of factual material that painted a picture of what is happening in the Chechen Republic today. Their evidence showed that extrajudicial executions regularly take place there, as people who are suspected of committing a crime but whose guilt has not been investigated and proven are punished not as prescribed by the law, but on the orders and instructions of Ramzan Kadyrov. – Kadyrov himself has openly and repeatedly taken responsibility for such killings. Kadyrov and his entourage see rights activists as enemies, and have stated so in public. A campaign of persecution is being waged in the republic against the relatives of those who take part in the fighting: their houses are burned down and they are required to disown their children.
While it cannot be claimed that these monstrous facts have not received publicity earlier – rights activists have written about them in the mass media, mostly in the West, and continue to do so – this is the first time that the information about the criminal activities of the Chechen regime has been systematized and presented in the course of a public trial.
The court did not even attempt to repudiate the testimony of the plaintiff and his defence witnesses, or to expose their legal nullity. It was not given a chance to do so. As a result, the entire array of evidence was simply ignored, even though a decision to award Kadyrov damages could only have been reached if the court were satisfied, on the basis of proof, that he was not personally responsible for the brutal behaviour of the law enforcers under his control.
Although the claims for damages were not met in full – the judge determined that Orlov should only pay 70,000 rubles ($2,300), of which 50,000 rubles (around $1,650) should come from Memorial and 20,000 rubles (around $660) from Orlov himself – the court took Ramzan Kadyrov under its protection. It refused to consider the substance of the charges raised by him against Oleg Orlov.
The legal implications of the decision in the shorter term are most unfavourable for journalists and rights activists. It seems that from now on they will be denied the right to speak out concerning Kadyrov’s responsibility for the situation in Chechnya, despite the fact that this responsibility is enshrined in the republic’s Constitution. In future the Chechen authorities will appeal to Russian justice in order to keep the abductions, torture and killings by the Kadyrov-controlled security forces under wraps. By filing a new lawsuit, this time against the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and its columnist Vyacheslav Izmailov, Kadyrov has already demonstrated that this is the course he plans to take.
However, the news is not all bad. Memorial does not agree with court’s decision and clearly does not intend to reorganize its activities in accordance with it. The same is true of those journalists who specialize in coverage of human rights violations in Chechnya. In addition, Russian law is not case law, and it is by no means a foregone conclusion that at the next trial of this kind the example of the Tverskoi district court will be automatically replicated.
In the long run, Kadyrov’s position is dangerously exposed. He and his lawyers should think twice before making the practice of brutal repression in Chechnya the subject of public legal proceedings. Memorial has already prepared an appeal to a higher tribunal, and intends to take its case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. At each stage of the way the Russian justice system will have to keep answering a painful question: should it investigate whether there is any substance in the numerous accusations of criminal activity by Kadyrov’s militia as backed by the ample evidence that Memorial and other rights groups have gathered? Even if higher courts take their lead from the Tverskoi district court and refuse to consider the defence’s arguments, at Strasbourg a real judicial process cannot be avoided. There is every likelihood that Kadyrov’s civil defamation suit will turn into a large-scale trial of the criminals who have been given full and uncontrolled power over the Chechen Republic.
Trial materials.
(Translation by DM)
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