車臣法院駁回上訴繼續關押人權組織領導人

The Supreme Court in Russia's Chechnya region on Friday rejected an appeal of the extension of the pretrial detention of the chief of a human rights group. That means Oyub Titiyev, the director of Memorial's Grozny office, will remain in jail until at least June 9.

The 60-year-old Titiyev has been in pretrial detention in Chechnya since his arrest on January 9 for a marijuana-possession charge he and supporters say was fabricated.

According to Western human rights activists, Chechen police systematically plant drugs on critics of Chechnya's pro-Moscow leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

In 2014, following public criticism of Kadyrov, activist Ruslan Kutayev was sentenced to four years in prison on drug-possession charges that he flatly denied. In 2016, journalist Zhalaudi Geriyev of the Caucasian Knot website was also arrested on drug charges and sentenced to three years in prison. He remains in custody.俄羅斯車臣地區最高法院星期五駁回了一位人權團體領導人對延長審前監禁的上訴。這意味着人權組織“紀念”的格羅茲尼分部主任提提耶夫最短也要在監獄裏被關到6月9號。

60歲的提提耶夫1月9號被逮捕後一直被審前監禁，罪名是擁有大麻。他本人及其支持者說，這個罪名純屬捏造。

西方人權活動人士說，車臣警方經常對親莫斯科車臣領導人卡德羅夫的批評者進行毒品栽贓。

2014年，公開批評卡德羅夫的活動人士庫塔耶夫被指控擁有毒品，被判4年監禁。庫塔耶夫堅決否認這項指控。2016年，新聞記者格吉耶夫被以與毒品有關的罪名逮捕，獲刑3年，至今仍在服刑。