The defense team for Makhmud Velitov, the imam of the Yardyam mosque in Moscow, who has been charged with publicly justifying terrorism, has appealed a court ruling on extending his house arrest, said lawyer Dagir Khasavov.
"We have appealed this ruling by Moscow's Butyrsky District Court. We consider it unlawful," Khasavov said.
The defense team has obtained the Moscow City Court's decision to uphold the Butyrsky Court's ruling on placing Velitov under house arrest and now has sufficient grounds to take the case of Velitov's house arrest to the European Court of Human Rights, he said.
"We will file a suit with the ECHR in the near future concerning Imam Velitov's abduction by unidentified persons and the application of moral and psychological torture to him," he said.
The lawyer claimed that some evidence in the case has been falsified.
"We believe one of the expert reviews was falsified," Khasavov said.
On July 12, Moscow's Butyrsky Court imposed house arrest on Velitov, who was charged with publicly calling for terrorist activity or public justification of terrorism (Part 1 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Penal Code). He may face from two to five years in prison if found guilty.
The court also banned the imam from using the Internet, cell phones and landline phones, but allowed him to seek medical care because the imam has a second-degree disability and suffered a heart attack and a stroke. The Federal Penitentiary Institutions Service also decided not to put an electronic tag on Velitov because he had earlier had heart surgery.
Velitov testified and partially admitted his guilt, the lawyer said. Searches were earlier conducted at the imam's apartment and the mosque.
On August 2, Velitov said at the Moscow City Court that he had never spoken against the state and had never backed any extremist organizations. He noted that he had not justified the activity of one of the members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization, but was only reading the prayer for his repose. "He has been a good person. I did not know that he had been a member of some extremist organization," Velitov said. The investigators "are making a mountain out of a molehill," because this figure is already dead, he said.
source : abna24
