Yesterday, 13 July 2015, the Moscow City Court examined the appellate complaint of lawyer Evgeny Goubin against the actions of senior investigator of major cases under the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov. As we have previously reported, the lawyer, involved by the Committee Against Torture, for four months now have not been able to visit Zaur Dadayev in the Lefortovo detention center due to denial of access issued by the investigator. Zaur Dadayev claimed that had confessed of assassination of Boris Nemtsov through torture. Bas ed on the results of yesterday’s session the court dismissed the complaint.
(Source of photo: http://direct-press.ru)
As we have previously reported, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, Zaur Dadayev and Anzor Goubashev, involved in the case of Boris Nemtsov assassination, have officially applied to the Moscow office of the interregional nongovernmental organization «The Committee Against Torture» for legal assistance in connection with illegal violence which they were subjected to.
However, having initiated a public investigation, human rights defenders immediately faced with difficulties and actual reluctance of the official investigative authorities to conduct the check based on the statement of the two men, suspected of Boris Nemtsov’s assassination, about tortures by law-enforcement officers.
Along with that, the investigative authorities do everything in their power to prevent human rights defenders, which the applicants turned for legal support to, from checking the above-mentioned information on torture.
Thus, on 13 April 2015 lawyer Goubin received an express prohibition to visit Dadayev at Lefortovo detention facility: «Your application on «prompt issue of permit for unrestricted attendance» of defendant Z.Sh.Dadayev has been considered. Hereby I inform you that defendant Z.Sh.Dadayev did not provide his consent or request for your involvement in the criminal case as his lawyer, for which reason there is no grounds for issuing a permit for attending the defendant».
Appealing against this decision of the investigator in the Basmanny District Court of Moscow failed: at that time the court agreed to the arguments of the investigation, saying that Dadayev already had a defense lawyer. However, the court did not take into account obvious facts. First and foremost, lawyer Goubin is not taking part in the criminal case as Dadayev’s defense lawyer and had no such intention whatsoever, but only wished to represent Dadayev’s interests in case his torture statements will be confirmed.
The decision of the court of the first instance was appealed against at the Moscow City Court. In the course of yesterday’s court session the representative of the Investigative Committee Aleksandr Kamashev asked the court to dismiss the complaint of lawyer Goubin, with very strange arguments: «In this case the investigation decided that access of another person, namely, lawyer Goubin, in this or that way could present an obstacle for investigation, since the investigation materials, including the information that Zaur Sharipovich may convey to lawyer Goubin, can prevent the proceedings of this criminal case. Plain and simple, people are put in detention centers so that they cannot communicate with anyone. Due to that the investigator refused to let lawyer Goubin communicate with Zaur Sharipovich. Having analyzed all the above-mentioned, the investigation has come to the conclusion that lawyer Goubin, having issued an order and provided his lawyer service certificate, abused his status and is trying to use a possible legal ignorance of the investigation in order to gain access to Zaur Sharipovich, in doing so being guided not by the duty to protect the interests of Zaur Sharipovich, but rather by the interests of some non-governmental organization, the objectives of which we are not aware of».
Head of the Moscow office of INGO «The Committee Against Torture» summarized the court session: «Yesterday Zaur Dadayev once again stated, this time via conference calling, that for over four months he cannot meet lawyer Goubin, although he repeatedly asked the investigator and the Prosecutor’s Office to grant him this possibility. Dadayev repeated several times that he needed the services of lawyer Goubin for representation in the framework of torture complaint check and not in the framework of his own criminal case investigation. Actually, that is the reason why Goubin was not appointed Dadayev’s defense lawyer. However, the court preferred not to hear him.
The constitutional right of Zaur Dadayev for qualified legal support was indeed violated. Today we once again saw that happening. The court did not take into account the arguments of lawyer Goubin, but was guided exclusively by the opinion of the Prosecutor and the investigator. We shall definitely appeal against this court decision in the higher rank court instance. At the same time, we are considering the possibility of applying to the Constitutional Court of Russia. We are interested to what extent the legal norms, regulating the procedure of providing legal support to the arrested citizens or citizens under investigation, comply with the provisions of Russian Constitution in such a context of law enforcement practice».