{"id":13822,"date":"2018-01-11T15:05:44","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T12:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org?p=13822"},"modified":"2018-01-12T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T08:06:00","slug":"russian-federation-arbitrary-detention-and-judicial-harassment-of-mr-oyub-titiev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/news\/russian-federation-arbitrary-detention-and-judicial-harassment-of-mr-oyub-titiev\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia: Rights Defender Arbitrarily Arrested in Chechnya"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 11, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

Police in Chechnya have arbitrarily arrested Oyub Titiev, head of the local office of Memorial, Russia\u2019s leading human rights organization, on bogus drug possession charges, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and International Partnership for Human Rights said today<\/a>. Authorities should immediately free Titiev, drop the charges against him, and stop hindering the work of human rights advocates in Chechnya, the international human rights groups said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTitiev\u2019s arrest is a clear signal that authorities in Chechnya are trying to force Memorial out of Chechnya, which is an affront to everyone there who needs protection from human rights abuses. Titiev should not be in custody, where we fear his health and safety are at risk.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n

Police arrested Titiev, 60, at approximately 10:30 a.m. on January 9, 2018, near Kurchaloi, a town 30 miles from Grozny, the Chechen capital. One of Titiev\u2019s friends told Memorial that he saw Titiev standing by his car on a local road near the Khumyk river bridge, surrounded by five or six police officers. The same witness said that when he later went to the Kurchaloi police department to look for Titiev, he saw his friend\u2019s car parked outside.<\/p>\n

A lawyer sent by Memorial went to the police station in the early afternoon, but police officials did not acknowledge Titiev was in custody and did not let him in. In the early evening, Chechnya\u2019s deputy interior minister informed Russia\u2019s federal ombudsperson, in response to her inquiry, that Kurchaloi police had detained Titiev. The lawyer was then admitted to the station.<\/p>\n

Russian law provides that authorities can hold a person for up to three hours before formally placing them in custody, but the detainee is entitled to access to a lawyer as soon as they are detained. Titiev had access to his lawyer only after almost seven hours, and when the authorities issued the official report registering his detention, they listed the time of detention as 8.10 p.m., approximately 10 hours after he was first in their custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe detaining authorities refused to provide any information about his whereabouts and fate for close to seven hours, in violation of international due process standards, raising a real concern that they may have been trying to forcibly disappear him.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrew Anderson, director at Front Line Defenders<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n

\u201cRussia has an obligation under international human rights law to immediately register and acknowledge all detentions, and allow detainees access to their lawyers, a fundamental safeguard against ill treatment and enforced disappearances.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Denis Krivosheev, head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Office at Amnesty International<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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The police told the lawyer they had allegedly found 180 grams of a marijuana-like substance in a bag in Titiev\u2019s car and that Titiev was under investigation for possession of an illegal drug. Titiev denied the allegations and insisted the bag had been planted by police. If convicted, Titiev faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence. The human rights advisor to Russia\u2019s president, Mikhail Fedotov told the press, that Titiev\u2019s case may constitute a fabrication and the investigation authorities should look into the issue.<\/p>\n

The rights groups called on Moscow to ensure that Titiev is immediately released, that there are no further threats to his security, and that human rights groups can carry out their work in Chechnya safely. Nils Mui\u017enieks, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement expressing concern about Titiev\u2019s arrest, questioning the \u201cdubious charges that lack credibility\u201d and calling on Russian authorities to immediately ensure his release.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s international partners should follow Mui\u017enieks\u2019 example and publicly express their objection to this attempt to silence Memorial and urge the Kremlin to secure Titiev\u2019s immediate release and continued safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cBogus drug-related charges and planted evidence are a regular tactic that Chechen authorities have used to punish and discredit their critics.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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In the summer of 2014, a court in Chechnya sentenced local activist Ruslan Kutaev to four years in prison on fabricated, politically motivated drug charges after he criticized and disobeyed an order by Chechnya\u2019s leader, President Ramzan Kadyrov. Kutaev was paroled in December 2017. In 2016, another Chechen court sentenced journalist Zhalaudi Geriev to three years in prison on similarly fabricated drug charges. Geriev reported for Caucasian Knot, an online outlet that reports extensively on Chechnya and that has criticized Chechnya\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

Memorial has monitored abuses in Chechnya for more than 25 years, reporting extensively first on abuses by federal forces during the two Chechen wars, and then on violations carried out by local authorities with the Kremlin\u2019s tacit blessing.During the past 10 years of Kadyrov\u2019s rule in Chechnya, Memorial has published hard-hitting expos\u00e9s on collective punishment practices, enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment, punitive house burnings, and extrajudicial killing by local security officials. They have consistently described contemporary Chechnya as a totalitarian enclave within Russia, noting Kadyrov\u2019s interference in virtually all aspects of social life, including politics, religion, academic discourse, and family matters.<\/p>\n

Titiev has led Memorial\u2019s work in Chechnya since 2009, after the kidnapping and murder of his colleague Natalia Estemirova. His arrest follows years of threats and smear campaigns by Chechnya\u2019s authorities against Memorial and other human rights groups. Kadyrov and other Chechen public officials routinely vilify human rights defenders as \u201cpuppets of the West\u201d and \u201cenemies of Russia\u201d bent on destabilizing Chechnya. Some activists also suffered attacks and harassment by local security officials or pro-government thugs.<\/p>\n

The most recent smear came in December 2017 from Magomed Daudov, speaker of Chechnya\u2019s parliament and Kadyrov\u2019s right hand man, after Kadyrov was included as a target for US sanctions under the US Magnitsky Act and his Instagram account was blocked. Daudov accused human rights defenders of \u201crunning to their boss across the ocean and pouring rivers of lies\u201d and said: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if they were involved in other subversion aimed at weakening our state\u2026.I think it\u2019s time to send our enemies, those who don\u2019t like a strong Russia, [out of the country] to their foreign bosses or to isolate them from polite society. \u2026If only Russia hadn\u2019t had a moratorium [on the death penalty], we could\u2019ve just bid these enemies of the people \u2018salaam alekum\u2019 and be done with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe fact that Chechen authorities have so blatantly invented drug accusations against Titiev is not surprising, in light of the vicious way they persistently target people brave enough to try to speak up about human rights abuses. The question is,what will Russia\u2019s federal authorities do about it and whether Russia\u2019s international partners will do their utmost to ensure Moscow does the right thing?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bj\u00f8rn Engesland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Photo by HRC “Memorial”<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 11, 2018 Police in Chechnya have arbitrarily arrested Oyub Titiev, head of the local office of Memorial, Russia\u2019s leading human rights organization, on bogus drug possession charges, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, FIDH and the World…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,2],"tags":[287],"strategy_cases":[],"campaign":[],"archive":[],"filter-content":[],"regions":[],"class_list":["post-13822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-news","tag-human-rights-defenders-en"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",780,520,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial-125x125.jpg",125,125,true],"medium":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial-500x333.jpg",500,333,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",780,520,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",780,520,false],"pub-thumb":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial-220x147.jpg",220,147,true],"post-thumb":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial-170x170.jpg",170,170,true],"wcicon":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",48,32,false],"wcsquare":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",300,200,false],"wcsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",250,167,false],"wcstandard":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",550,367,false],"wcbig":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",780,520,false],"wcfixedheightsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",270,180,false],"wcfixedheightmedium":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",450,300,false],"wcfixedheight":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",750,500,false],"wccarouselsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",210,140,false],"wccarousel":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",400,267,false],"wcslider":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/titiev_memorial.jpg",750,500,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"

January 11, 2018 Police in Chechnya have arbitrarily arrested Oyub Titiev, head of the local office of Memorial, Russia\u2019s leading human rights organization, on bogus drug possession charges, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and International Partnership for Human Rights said today. Authorities should immediately free Titiev, drop the charges against him, and stop hindering the work of human rights advocates in Chechnya, the international human rights groups said. \u201cTitiev\u2019s arrest is a clear…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"Breaking news<\/a>, News<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"admin3","url":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/author\/admin3\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13822"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13837,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13822\/revisions\/13837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13822"},{"taxonomy":"strategy_cases","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/strategy_cases?post=13822"},{"taxonomy":"campaign","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaign?post=13822"},{"taxonomy":"archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive?post=13822"},{"taxonomy":"filter-content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/filter-content?post=13822"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=13822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}