Trial on Oyub Titiev: day 3

The proceedings begin.
In the court are Oyub and his lawyers, Zaikin, Dubrovina, Novikov, and both prosecutors. From the press, there is the Novaya Gazeta (New Gazette), Kavkaz. Realii, Caucasian Knot (Kavkazskii Uzel), and DOSH.
Alexander Cherkasov is there representing «Memorial» Human Rights Center and Tanya Lokshina is there representing Human Rights Watch.
And of course, Oyub’s family.

Day 2 report see here.

The court received a petition from «Chechnya Today» to videotape the meeting.
The prosecutors are against it. They will be interrogating the current employees. It is possible that they can then be transferred to the operational service, where the videos may be used against them.
Novikov: The defense and Oyub are for the transparency of the process.
Judge Zaynetdinov decided against the petition.
The cameras leave.
8 witnesses have appeared for questioning today.

1(14) Bilalov Aslanbek Sultanovich, born 1986. He works at the Kurchaloevskij police station. He works in the Patrol Unit.
He did not participate in Oyub’s detention.
Novikov: Do you know Titiev as a resident of the village? Did you used to see him on the street?
Witness: No.
Novikov: What type of uniform do the police station employees wear?
Witness: Blue camouflage, I didn’t see any green uniforms.
He has worked at the police station since 2006.
He did not see stripes of the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) or cars with that inscription.
He knows what RRU stands for. He never saw anyone with those letters and was never photographed with people wearing those letters.
Dubrovina: At the Kurchaloevskij police station is there a UAZ Patriot?
He didn’t see one.
He didn’t see any cars with camouflage.
On January 9, only one foot-patrol unit went out.
He doesn’t know anything about the auto-patrol on that day.
On that day, no one was detained or transported.
Since January, he has not transported anyone suspected of illicit drug trafficking.
Oyub asks about the cousin of the witness, the wife of Oyub’s cousin. The witness says the sister is there, but he has never been to her place.

2(15) Visaliev Rasul Maxmudovich
He does not know Oyub.
He was on foot-patrol on January 9.
There were other patrols, but he doesn’t know how many.
It’s possible that there was auto-patrol.
The route of this patrol does not cross Mayrtup. The route was non-stop. He wore an everyday «blue working uniform» He does not know about the attached forces that day.
He does not know which units wear blue camouflage. He says that no one wears that type of uniform in the Kurchaloevskij police station. It turned out that the everyday uniform that the witness had in mind is blue camouflage. This is actually a field uniform.
He does not know what types of cars are used for auto-patrol.
He saw a UAZ Patriot at the police station, but it wasn’t camouflage.
He did not detain anyone involved in illegal drug trafficking.
There is no RRU in the Kurchaloevskij police station, he says. And there wasn’t in January.
Oyub asks which streets he passes on his patrol. The prosecutor objected, but the witness answered anyway.
Judge: That is not secret information.
3(16) Abdulvaxabov Vaxaid, he works in the Shalinskoj police department. He was not involved in Oyub’s arrest or transport.
He transferred to the Shalinskij police station a week ago. Before that, he had been at the Kurchaloevskij police station since 2016.
He saw the RRU and RRF on TV.
There is a RRF at the Kurchaloevskij police station.
If something is happening in the neighborhood, they make a cordon.
RRF is the name of police unit.
That unit’s uniform was normally blue camouflage.
He does not remember if there was someone in green camouflage or some other color on January 9. All the patrollers wear only blue camouflage.
RRF is foot-patrol.
Auto-patrol operates every day.
He doesn’t know how many, but he is sure there was more than one.
Zaikin: Are there cars with the letters GIBDD, GIA (two separate road police unit), patrol unit or police station?
Witness: There is also a district police officer.
Zaikin prompts: UUP (an abbreviation for the district police officer).
He did not see any Niva camouflage cars.
There is a steel color, but he didn’t see shades of green.
He did not see if there were any forces out on January 9. At the morning briefing he did not see anyone in green camouflage.
He did not arrest any drug trafficking suspects. He did not see the stripes of the RRU, and there are no stripes on the RRF.

4(17) Bagaev Soip Salambekovich, born 1992 in Kurchaloi. He is an employee of the police station. He does not know Oyub and is not related to him.
He has worked in the Patrol Unit since 2016.
He was not involved in Oyub’s arrest or transport.
He patrols Tsentoroy.
Novikov: Tsentoroy doesn’t have its own police?
Witness: That is our area.
There is a normal service order there.
Novikov: What route were you taking from the police station to Tsentoroy?
Witness: The usual route. We drove across the bridge between Kurchaloe and Mayrtup.
He does not remember at what time.
He does not remember any law enforcement cars. Their car did not stop. Their cars have «Police» and «Police Patrol Unit» written on them, but nothing else.
Zaikin: The head of the Republic banned tinted windows.
Witness: No.
The car was a steel color.
He does not know if there were other auto-patrols on that day.
Zaikin: Are there any green colored police cars?
Witness: I don’t know. I didn’t see any camouflage ones at the police station.
Did any of these assigned forces serve on January 9: the National Guard, police from other areas, Special Rapid Reaction Unit, etc.? He does not remember.
Were they informed that other units could operate in their region that day? No, they were not.
Zaikin: In the village of Tsentoroy they have their own security, and no other security forces operate there?
Witness: No, they have their work and we have ours.
If the police will be going through Tsentoroy, the guard warns local police.
There was no one in the stripes of the RRU or RRF. This is forbidden.
He does not know the stripes of others, except for of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the police.
He also did not see bulletproof vests or tactical load carrying vests.
He does not know if there is an RRU police station in Kurchaloevskij.
He possibly saw something familiar in RRF. But he doesn’t know nor is he interested in what these letters stand for.
According to Zaikin, employees in the village of Tsentoroy wear green camouflage.
Judge: You should be interested not in the police force of Tsentoroy, but in what was on the way there.
He did not see any patrol units in between Kurchaloe and Mayrtup.
He did not arrest anyone in Tsentoroy on January 9.
Oyub does not have any questions and he is smiling.

5(18) Mataev Alikhan Denilbekovich, born 1983 in Vedeno. He lives in Benoi. He completed higher education. He is an inspector of a mobile platoon of an auto-patrol unit in the Kurchaloevskij police station. This is the first time he is seeing Oyub. He has been an inspector since 2017.
They are given foot and auto-patrol cards when they are working. The routes tend to change, though recently they have not changed.
Within the auto-patrol he was a normal employee, not a driver. The drivers change. On January 9 they were in a solid silver car.
There are no letters on the car, just «police» written on the sides. There is nothing written on the windows and the windows are not tinted.
He worked in the village of Tsentoroy.
Zaikin: Is there a bridge between Mayrtup and Kurchaloe on the route?
Witness: There is. There is a gas station on one side.
Did any unit ever work in between the bridge and the gas station? He does not remember.
He does not remember any cars with the letters RRU or RRF.
He saw cars with the letters RRU or RRF in the police department during general events. There are a lot of letters on the cars. In theory, he saw the letters of RRF and RRU.
He does not know which unit the letters apply to.
He does not know if those same employees of Kurchaloevskij police station are the ones who go in those cars.
He does not remember any camouflage cars. He has worked in the Kurchaloevskij police station since 2015. He did not arrest anyone on January 9.
Since then, he has been transporting offenders. He does not remember how many. He does not know how many auto-patrols were working on January 9. He did not see any green cars.

6(19) Elmurzaev Dzhabrail, born in Kurchaloi, works at the police station.
Does the auto-patrol participate in the morning briefing? There is the patrol unit and road patrol unit.
On that day were there a few patrollers of the patrol unit? He doesn’t know.
He has never gone on the auto-patrol himself.
He does not know what the RRU is.
In the morning, two to three people are put on RRF. Their uniform is blue camouflage. He has not seen the stripes of the RRU.
Who has the stripes of the RRF? He does not know, although he saw them at general events. Are there green cars in the Kurchaloevskij police station? He doesn’t know. He never saw camouflage cars.
He does not remember if he arrested someone on January 9 while on patrol.
Novikov: Today the police are all wearing civilian clothes. Last time they were all in the new uniforms. I am trying to sort out if someone, besides the court, is coordinating the appearance of the witnesses
Oyub: Do you not know that I live not far from you?
Witness: I am saying that you and I have never spoken, we might have seen each other sometime.
Witness: I came here to say what I know, but I don’t know anything (about this case).

7(20) Khusixanov Axmed Aslanbekovich, born 1984. He did not participate in the arrest or transportation. He heard about the arrest. He is on foot-patrol.
On January 9, he was working at Checkpoint 1.
When a car comes up, they tell the duty station and they decide whether to let the car in. The duty station decides. He does not remember who was working at the duty station on January 9.
At that time Isa Bisiev worked at the duty station, but he has since resigned. They record who comes through by foot in a notebook. They do not record cars passing through. If someone comes through by car, they do not review his documents. These people are not recorded in the notebook.
He does not remember whether a Lada came through on January 9. He does not remember Oyub. He does not write anything in the notebook himself.
The witness does not remember who was recording. The numbers of the cars are not kept anywhere. He does not know if anyone keeps them anywhere. He does not remember if other security officials were let through that day.
He does not remember whether a green or camouflage car was let through.
Prosecutor Baitaeva asks for a rephrasing of the question.
Zaikin asks the prosecutor to make a note, because the defense is incapable of prosecuting while also collecting evidence.
Zaikin: The witnesses readily answer the questions of the court and State prosecution, but not ours.
He does not remember a camouflage car on January 9.
When there are events, there are various types of cars.
Novikov: What types of events? Weddings?
Witnesss: No, service events, joint trips to the forest, for example.
In the parking lot of the police department he did not see green or camouflage cars.
Investigator Muratov interrogated the witness in the police department. He does not remember when.
He does not remember who had the next shift on January 10. There is no RRU at the police station at all.
Oyub asks whether the witness saw his car, a Lada Kalina, in the police station parking. It has been there since January 9. The witness does not remember. I’m saying I did not see you.

8(21) Etsiev Rizvan, born 1989. Lives in Kurchaloi, he has secondary education. He works at the Kurchaloevskij police station. He does not know Oyub and he is not related to Oyub.
He is the first witness of the day in blue camouflage.
He did not arrest or transport Oyub.

9(22) Khadzhiev Iznaur Turpal-Alievich.
He is a sergeant at the Kurchaloevskoe police station. He does not know Oyub and he did not arrest him. This is his first time seeing Oyub. He does not know if there is an RRU at the Kurchaloevskij police station. He doesn’t remember if there was one before. Zaikin and Novikov ask to move the proceedings to next week because they are busy in Moscow tomorrow. The prosecutor is against this as Dubrovina will still be there. There is a recess in the proceedings until August 8, 10:00am.