Convicts in Amirov's state being tortured

Investigators had violated defendants' rights; and the first-instance court had failed to take into account the arguments of the defence, the convicts in Said Amirov's case said in their last plea at consideration of their appeal complaint. They called on the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia to make a verdict of acquittal.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in July 2014 Said Amirov, the Mayor of Makhachkala, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of preparing a terror act; and in August 2015, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for organizing custom murders. Neither he, nor the other figurants in these cases, namely, Yusup Djaparov, Murad Aliev, Akhmedov brothers, Magomed Kadiev and Zubair Mutaev, pled guilty.

Today, Said Amirov made his last plea at the trial. He said that the prosecutor did not even try to get into his case, but simply fulfilled the political order of his opponents.

The defence has presented enough proofs "evidencing the falsification of the criminal case, abusing and torturing the defendants, and putting pressure on witnesses," Said Amirov has stated in his speech at the today's court session.

After Amirov, the floor was given to the convict Abdulmazhid Akhmedov. "In this case, everything had started with torture. There was nothing of the kind in the history of Russia," said Akhmedov, asking the court to cancel his conviction.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.