Prosecution witness testifies in favour of Dagestani journalist Gadjiev

A prosecution witness questioned in court positively described Abdulmumin Gadjiev and his posts, an advocate reported. Abdulmumin Gadjiev, a journalist of the weekly newspaper “Chernovik” (Rough Draft), is involved as a defendant in a case on financing of terrorism.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don extended the arrest of the defendants in the case until July 28. Relatives of Kemal Tambiev and Abdulmumin Gadjiev complained about being not allowed to visit the defendants. At a court hearing held on May 20, a prosecution witness testified that Israil Akhmednabiev, the general director of the “Ansar” foundation, was involved in financing of terrorism, and he involved Abdulmumin Gadjiev to cover the “Ansar” foundation’s charitable activities.

Laura Kurdjieva, a wife of Kemal Tambiev, said that the court refused to recognize as illegal the police actions during the detention of Kemal Tambiev and argued that law enforcers reasonably used force.

During the questioning, the prosecution witness positively described Abdulmumin Gadjiev and his posts, advocate Anna Serdyukova reported. According to the advocate, the case also involves secret witnesses for the prosecution.

Witnesses refer to secret sources or do not name them mentioning it was secret operative information. This is a widespread practice not only in cases on financing of terrorism, but also in other criminal cases, notes Shamil Magomedov, an advocate from the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”*.

* The HRC "Memorial" is recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent.