Lawyers criticize verdict to their Chechen colleague Timur Idalov

The court has groundlessly added an aggravating motive to Timur Idalov, a Chechen advocate, in the case of threats to the prosecutor, which led to a harsh punishment and left him in custody pending appeal, although he could have been released, lawyers have emphasized.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 31, it became known that Timur Idalov was detained in Grozny. His defence believes that the case has a number of violations. On November 28, the court sentenced him to one year and 11 months of forced labour and banned him from practicing advocacy for three years. The ban on practicing law was the most severe part of Idalov's punishment, lawyers have stressed.

Dmitry Sotnikov, an advocate, has recalled that the Shatoi District Court had found that placing Idalov on the wanted list was illegal.

The sentence, which provided for the replacement of the punishment with forced labour and a ban on practicing law, was passed with Timur left in custody until the sentence came into force. This is another gross violation committed by the court, one of Idalov's relatives believes.

Valentin Bogdan, the head of the Fund "In Defence of Prisoners' Rights"*, treats the situation, when a convict is left in custody, even if his punishment is not related to freedom deprivation, as usual.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.