Chechen student's sentence to be appealed

Vladimir Suvorov and Zezag Usmanova, the defense of Zara Murtazaliyeva - a resident of Chechnya convicted by the Moscow City Court on January 17, are extremely dissatisfied with the court decision and intend to appeal it. The court sentenced the 22-year-old student from Chechnya to 9 years' imprisonment under three articles: preparation of a crime, terrorism, and carrying of explosives.

Explosives allegedly found in Zara's bag were destroyed during an experiment ? investigators checked if they exploded or not. So it is impossible to prove weather they had Murtazaliyeva's fingerprints.

Besides, at the very beginning of the hearing, it was announced that Zara had received training in a terrorist camp near Baku. However Azerbaijan authorities stated categorically that terrorists from Chechnya had no camp on their territory. It was also mentioned in the indictment that Zara had taken active part in operations against federal troops in Chechnya since 1994. But the certificate presented by the girl's mother says that she was at secondary school and was only 12 at that time.

According to Mr Suvorov, the deed of the mother of Zara's friend Anna Kulikova, who was a witness in the Murtazaliyeva case, also indicates that the State Security Department and the Federal Security Service concocted the case. Kulikova's mother submitted an application to the Civic Assistance Committee that her daughter was being forced to give false evidence by beating, threats, and insult.

Russian human rights activists are going to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against the sentence imposed on Chechen Zara Murtazaliyeva.