Chiygoz and Polozov removed from court hearing on consideration of their complaints

Today, Russian-controlled Supreme Court of Crimea has dismissed the appellate complaint of Akhtem Chiygoz and his lawyers, which is related to the extension of his detention until July 8.

As reported by reporter of the Human Rights Information Centre in Crimea.

According to the reporter, the panel of judges including Yuriy Gritsenko, Sergiy Rubanov and Timur Slezko acted prejudiced, deliberately scandalous and aggressive during the consideration of complaint. Mykola Polozov, lawyer of the defendant, was removed from the courtroom and given a private ruling. Chiygoz himself was disconnected from the video broadcast and petition of the second lawyer Oleksandr Lisovuy to exclude him from the trial, since the defendant rejected his participation, was left without satisfaction.

It all started with the fact that the side of the defense learned about the improper execution of documents by the representative of the prosecutor’s office Andriy Kaltyrin. He has not submitted to the court an order of his superiors on appointing him a prosecutor in this process.

The judges reacted nervously to this fact, then left for the jury room, after which they announced that there would be no removal of the prosecutor.

At the same time, the prosecutor was not challenged at that stage and defendant Akhtem Chiygoz made a comment regarding this fact. In response, the judges began to interrupt him, raised their voices and eventually expressed first and then the second reprimand on the violation of public order during the court session. The question about the “removal” of Chiygoz from the courtroom arose.

After that, the judges similarly reacted to the statement of lawyer Mykola Polozov, announcing two reprimands.

And when the floor was taken by the lawyer Oleksandr Lisovuy, the judges stood up and went to the jury room. They exited the jury room with a decision to remove Polozov and Chiyhoz from the process.

Remaining lawyer Lisovuy made a motion on refusing to participate in the trial, due to the refusal of his client from his services. But the panel of judges refused to satisfy the petition and formally considered the case, in fact, with the silence of the remaining lawyer. Lawyer Lisovuy demonstratively left the courtroom after the judges again retired to the jury room to adopt the decision.

As a reminder, Ahtem Chiygoz was detained in January 2015 for participating in a rally in support of the territorial integrity of Ukraine in front of the Crimean parliament on February 26, 2014. Then protestors opposed the pro-Russian activists, including those from the Russian Unity.

Russian court is considering “Chiygoz case” as part of “February 26 case”, which on July 20, during a closed court hearing was divided into two different cases: a separate case on Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis Akhtem Chiygoz and separate case of other defendants – Ali Asanov and Mustafa Degermendzhi.