Trial of Pyatigorsk imam continues in Stavropol Territory

In the course of court sessions on the case of Anton (Abdullah) Stepanenko, imam of Pyatigorsk mosque (Stavropol Territory), the defence evidences are now considered. Svetlana Avdzhayeva, defendant's advocate, has telephoned about it today to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot." In her words, the victims were interrogated during the previous sessions.

"All the three witnesses have evidenced in the court that they had slandered the defendants Stepanenko and Grudin and confessed that did it under the pressure of the investigation, having signed the interrogation protocols without reading them," S. Avdzhayeva said.

According to her words, at the previous sessions, the court listened to evidences of one of the prosecution's witnesses, a former parishioner of Pyatigorsk mosque, who was convoyed from the Pre-Trial Detention Facility ("SIZO") of the city of Khasavyurt (Dagestan). The witness gave a negative answer when asked whether defendant A. Stepanenko had ever disseminated extremist literature during his sermons.

According to the Prosecutor-General's Office, Mr. Stepanenko, while being the imam at the Pyatigorsk mosque, profess radical Islam and allegedly used the respective literature for this purpose.