At the court session, after viewing a video in which he together with Akhmed Pogorov voiced corrupt schemes of officials, Barach Chemurziev told the court the details that were left out of the program.
«There are a lot of facts here. The first fact that Pogorov voiced was the name of Yandiyev Muslim (former head of the administration of the head of Ingushetia, before that he was head of the Ministry of Justice of Ingushetia). We accidentally crossed paths with him in the Essentuki temporary detention facility. We were very surprised when we saw him several months later, after we had been detained. He even did not have his beautiful black hair, it was cut like a prisoner. First of all, it was the minister who got three years. Unlike us, he received a suspended sentence, while we were given a real one,» Barach Chemurziev said in the video published on the Facebook page of the lawyer Magomed Bekov.
According to him, all the facts voiced in the program about corruption schemes in Ingushetia were presented, including by the prosecutor’s office of Ingushetia, the then Interior Minister and the head of the department of economic security and anti-corruption.
«We agreed to work together. They told us directly, we can’t work independently as our hands are tied. As soon as we start working on these facts, the head of the republic goes to Moscow and complains that he is prevented from fighting the terrorists. After that our direct superiors call us from Moscow and say «why do you hinder Yunus-Bek Yevkurov in his fight against terrorists? Don’t stop him from fighting. So what if they stole 200 million? So what? Is Russia getting poorer or what?» said Chemurziev.
The political prisoner also stressed that all the facts presented were confirmed by documents.
«Therefore, if the prosecution has grounds to believe that we have presented unsubstantiated facts, then bring another case against us or file a civil suit to protect our honor and dignity, but what does this have to do with the extremist community? Of course, I understand what this is all about. People who voice these facts need to be neutralized immediately, lest things end badly. The people whose names we mentioned in the program came to my house and threatened me personally. That is, we could have been killed for these facts in order to justify these amounts,» said Barakh Chemurziev.
According to him, he is very interested in what the prosecution will refer to in the debates and how, for example, his direct guilt will be proved.
«The violence against the Rosgvardia representative is just a convenient pretext to shut the mouths of people who are voicing indisputable facts. Pogorov is a man whom the Essentuki court is about to meet — he is a man of heavy character, he was a hostage in 1992, when he held the position of an investigator. A man who fought, really protected people, because he personally detained criminals. He was awarded the Order of Courage. Kadyrov knows him well because he was deputy military commandant during the hardest of times. Such people can’t lie, you know. Such people speak from the heart. This man was a federal inspector for seven years, and he checked the regional offices all over the country. Can such people really be extremists? Can they really lead violence against Rosgvardia employees? Of course, this is natural nonsense. This proof confirms our innocence — all those people who are here. Gogol is resting with his Chichikov. I don’t know what way you want to prove our guilt, if you are trying to do it with this «evidence,» concluded Chemurziev.
Recall that Barakh Chemurziev, along with other leaders of the Ingush protest after the March 2019 rally in Magas, is accused of organizing and calling for violence against representatives of the authorities and of creating and participating in an extremist community. Protests against the agreement on the border between Ingushetia and Chechnya began in Magas in the fall of 2018, and in March 2019 turned into clashes with security forces and detentions of activists. A total of 46 people were arrested, most of them received real sentences. Eight protest leaders are currently in the dock, including former Ingush Interior Minister Akhmed Pogorov, who is being tried separately.
