19:37, 15 September 2023

Commutation of sentence gave Musaeva a chance for CER

Zarema Musaeva in the courtroom. Photo by the "Caucasian Knot"

After the Supreme Court of Chechnya commuted her sentence, Zarema Musaeva has the right to take into consideration the time served by her in a SIZO (pre-trial prison), as well as to ask for conditional early relief (CER), noted human rights defenders.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on September 12, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya reduced the term of imprisonment of Zarema Musaeva to five years and replaced the term in a common-security penal colony with a settlement colony.

In accordance with the law, conditional early relief (CER) may be applied only after a convicted person has actually served at least one third of the sentence imposed for a crime of minor or moderate gravity.

After the Supreme Court of Chechnya reduced the sentence of Zarema Musaeva and changed the category of severity of the crimes, she got the opportunity to take into consideration the term already served by her in the SIZO and apply for conditional early relief (CER), emphasized human rights defenders from the “Team Against Torture” (TaT)*.

The mitigation of Zarema Musaeva’s sentence by the Supreme Court of Chechnya was not expected, noted lawyer Sergei Shunin.

*The “Team against Torture” (formerly the “Committee against Torture” – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 14, 2023 at 10:47 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot