Human rights activists from Memorial claim that Aslanbek Kazanchev and Anzor Batyrov from Kabardino-Balkaria were sentenced to long terms (17 and 14 years, respectively) based on fabricated evidence. According to Memorial, secret witnesses in their case verbatim repeat testimonies from other cases concerning the attack on the Pskov paratroopers during the second Russian-Chechen war.
Both defendants deny their guilt. The key prosecution witness was Taimuraz Nakusov, who cooperated with the investigation, but even he could not confirm the participation of Kazanchev and Batyrov in the hostilities.
Anzor Batyrov claims that in 1999-2000 he was permanently in Nalchik and worked as a loader. Aslanbek Kazanchev admitted that at the end of July 1999 he came to Chechnya with an acquaintance for military training at a training center under the leadership of Shamil Basayev and Khattab in Urus-Martan. But he soon left the center and did not subsequently take part in the clashes with the Pskov paratroopers.
"Memorial" states that there is a systematic practice of fabricating such cases, where the main evidence is absurd testimony of secret witnesses that is repeated from case to case.
