Defence of Kurbanov brothers doubts investigators' findings

In 2015-2016, Ismail and Mukhtar Kurbanov from Dagestan were in their native village and did not fight in Syria, their advocate has stated in court and presented the confirming documents.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 29, the father of Ismail and Mukhtar Kurbanov reported to the court that his sons had been kidnapped by law enforcers prior to their official detention. On November 25, the prosecutor stated that Mukhtar Kurbanov had several times confessed to participating in the Syrian conflict on militants' side, but the advocate doubted the truthfulness of the protocols. The Kurbanovs led a peaceful life in Egypt and didn't leave for Syria to participate in the warfare, their acquaintance said at the previous court session on December 2.

On December 4, in Rostov-on-Don, another session of the North-Caucasian District Court on Kurbanovs' case was held, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, who was present at the session, reports. The panel of judges agreed to add a number of documents provided by Kurbanovs' defence and confirming that in 2015-2016 Kurbanov was in Dagestan, and not in the Syrian Republic, to the case files, in particular, certificates from a driving school and polyclinic, bank statements, etc.

At the request of the defence, the court also examined CDs with video records of the interrogation of Kurbanov brothers. The advocate Alfat Gabbasov drew attention to the fact that, according to the protocol, the questioning of Mukhtar Kurbanov lasted 40 minutes, while the video on the CD is only 12 minutes long. The investigator was reading out the questions, which indicates the preliminary preparation of the document, the advocate believes.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 4, 2019 at 08:41 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.