On September 29, a regular hearing in the case of Zarema Musaeva took place in the Grozny court. The witnesses questioned in court - witnesses who were allegedly present during her identification in the pre-trial detention center - gave contradictory testimony.
Let us remind you: Zarema Musaeva, the wife of ex-judge of the Supreme Court of Chechnya Saydi Yangulbaeva, the mother of human rights activist Abubakar Yangulbaev and oppositionist, author of the 1ADAT telegram channel Ibragim Yangulbaev, is accused of attacking a police officer and fraud. Human rights activists at Memorial, which was liquidated in Russia, recognized her as a political prisoner and stated that “the persecution of Musayeva cannot be viewed as anything other than taking her hostage for the purpose of returning and punishing the men of the family for reasons of personal revenge.”
Zarema Musaeva was detained by police on January 20, 2022 in her apartment in Nizhny Novgorod and taken to Grozny. Since then she has been in jail. The court refused to transfer her to house arrest, despite her serious illness. On September 7, the court extended her preventive measure until December 12.
According to the Committee against Torture, on September 29, the court interrogated two witnesses who were present during the identification of Musaeva in the pre-trial detention center. One of them said that he saw extras - people who are presented at an identification parade along with the suspect or accused - even before the start of the investigative action. Another said that the extras were already waiting in the pre-trial detention center with Zarema Musaeva, but they did not look like her (which violates the procedure for conducting identification). In addition, according to the witness, during the identification process Zarema stood while the extras sat. “These facts exclude identification as such,” summed up Musaeva’s lawyer, Alexander Karavaev.
Meanwhile, the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod Region decided to investigate the facts of abuse of power by the police officers who detained Musaeva.
The investigation was initiated by Team Against Torture lawyers. Over the eight months since their arrest, they filed 21 petitions, 24 complaints, 12 appeals, three requests and three statements about abuse of power by law enforcement officers.
Earlier, in response to their complaints, the prosecutor's office of the Chechen Republic stated that the forced delivery of Zarema Musaeva to Grozny from Nizhny Novgorod was legal. However, in May, the CPT lawyers received a resolution from the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Chechen Republic to separate the investigation materials from the criminal case against Zarema Musaeva and transfer them to the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region under paragraph “a” of Part 3 of Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (exceeding official powers with the use of violence or the threat of its use).
“Now we expect that Nizhny Novgorod investigators will still have to study the video, order forensic examinations, interview eyewitnesses and police officers,” Reporter-NN quotes CPT lawyer Sergei Shunin.