On April 28, in the Akhmatovsky District Court of Grozny, where the trial of the mother of oppositionists Yangulbaevs, Zarema Musaeva, was underway, her defenders demanded that the results of one of the examinations be excluded from the evidence in the case. We were talking about the study of nail sections on which the blood of a police officer who was injured by Musaeva’s attack was allegedly found.
Lawyers Alexander Savin and Alexander Nemov drew the court's attention to procedural violations committed during the seizure of the sections. These violations suggest that the samples that were examined were not the same sections that were taken from the accused. The defense petitioned to have the results of this examination declared inadmissible and excluded from the case. However, the court rejected the request.
The day before, another “evidence” of Zarema Musaeva’s guilt was announced in court - the results of a repeat examination regarding harm. damage to the health of the injured police officer. This is already the third study. The first was carried out at the initiative of the investigation, it states that Musaeva caused slight harm to the health of a police officer by scratching his face. The defense challenged the expert's conclusions, pointing out a suspicious detail - there are no photographs of the damage in the case materials, only text with a description.
The second, independent examination concluded that no harm was caused to health.
The court ordered a third examination. It was carried out in Chechnya, although the defense requested that it be entrusted to experts outside the republic. The third examination confirmed the findings of the first. This means that Musaeva may be found guilty under Part 2 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – “the use of violence dangerous to life or health against a representative of the authorities.” It carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Let us remind you: Zarema Musaeva was detained in January in Nizhny Novgorod and taken to Chechnya as a witness in a criminal case of fraud. According to Chechen security officials, on the way the woman attacked a police officer and swore obscenely. For this, administrative and criminal cases were opened against her. Zarema Musaeva is the mother of human rights activist Abubakar, blogger Ibragim Yangulbaev and the wife of retired judge Saydi Yangulbaev. All of them were forced to leave the Russian Federation after the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, accused the Yangulbayev family of organizing a terrorist network and supporting terrorism and said that they would face a place “in prison or underground.”
The trial of Musaeva has been ongoing since June 2022. The health of the woman with diabetes mellitus deteriorated greatly during this time, and she began to lose her vision.