You're reading: RFE/RL: Halting start for Chechen activist’s trial amid dispute over venue

RFE/RL: Halting start for Chechen activist’s trial amid dispute over venue

Published July 18, 2018 at 4:51 pm

A picture taken on July 3, 2018 shows Oyub Titiyev, head of the Chechen section of the rights group Memorial, as he gestures leaving a court building in Grozny. Oyub Titiyev was arrested in January on what campaigners believe are trumped up drug charges in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya. Titiyev headed the local Grozny office of the award-winning Russian rights organization Memorial.

Photo by AFP

The politically charged drug-possession trial of a prominent human rights activist in Chechnya has gotten off to a halting start as jailed defendant Oyub Titiyev’s lawyer did not show up on its opening day.

Attorney Ilya Novikov stayed away from the hearing on July 18 because he thought Titiyev’s motion to move the trial out of Chechnya was still under consideration, the defense team said.