Interrogations against Criminal Code are conducted in Chiygoz case

On March 2, the board of Supreme Court judges of the Russian-controlled Crimea dismissed intercession of Ahtem Chiygoz’s defense on the inadmissibility of interrogating people with “other persons” status.

As reported by reporter of the Human Rights Information Centre, this was stated by lawyer Mykola Polozov during a break in the court session.

According to him, Criminal Procedural Code does not provide such thing as “other person”.

Despite this, judges declined the motion of defense and continued to interrogate defendants in the “February 26 case”, which was divided into a different procedure, as “other persons”.

In this regard, Mykola Polozov drew the attention to the fact that, according to the decision of the Constitutional Court, only those defendants who have agreed to cooperate with investigation can be questioned. While defendants Emirvaliev and Kantemirov have not given such consent. However, court has also ignored this statement. According to Polozov, in the future he intends to demand the exclusion of “other persons” evidence, which were obtained in violation of the Criminal Procedural Code norms.

As a reminder, a rally of supporters and opponents of Ukraine’s unity happened three years ago in front of the Crimean parliament. The emergence of aggressive representatives of the pro-Russian activists provoked a series of small fights and clashes resulting in deaths of two people and injuries of dozens.

After the annexation of Crimea, Russian law enforcement authorities have initiated a criminal against the participants of the pro-Ukrainian rally.

At present, two were convicted and another six Crimean Tatars are under judicial investigation, including Ahtem Chiygoz, the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.

On February 24, International Expert Panel stated that Russia has no right to investigate the events, which happened in front of the Crimean parliament. They called the investigation in Crimea as politically motivated and encouraged the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities to investigate the events of that day.