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Russian court jails top Chechen rights activist for 4 years

A Russian court on Monday sentenced a top Chechen rights activist to four years in a penal colony after a drugs trial that has drawn condemnation from international groups. Oyub Titiyev, the 61-year-old head of the regional branch of rights group Memorial, was in court in Chechnya for the sentencing, Memorial said in statements posted on social media.

Agencies and A News WORLD
Published March 18,2019
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A court in Russia's province of Chechnya has sentenced a prominent rights activist to four years in prison on drug charges widely seen as an effort by the authorities to stifle a critical voice.

Oyub Titiyev has been in custody since his arrest in January 2018 on drug possession charges in what has been largely perceived as a vendetta against a rare critic of the Chechen government.

Titiyev was the head of the Chechen office of prominent rights group Memorial and played a major role in exposing extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and torture perpetrated by security forces in Chechnya.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who previously dismissed rights activists as liars and traitors, publicly called the 61-year-old Titiyev a "junkie." Titiyev's supporters say the case aims not only to silence the activist, who is known as a devout Muslim, but also discredit him in the eyes of the community.