
1. They are being accused of crimes committed 20 years ago
There are a few points in the “Chechen case” which make it different from other cases of the Kremlin’s prisoners. The legal side of the case is very comprehensive. First of all both men are accused of “crimes” which were committed 20 years ago. This makes it very difficult to find evidence of their innocence. Most documents were eliminated from State Archives even if they existed before. Some people who could be witnesses are dead now or it was impossible to find their whereabouts. Those witnesses who were found don’t remember many important details. Witnesses in Mykola Karpiuk case are his close friends who worked with him. It was very difficult to find witnesses for Stanislav Klykh case because when the “crime” presumably was committed he was a student. Ukrainian law enforcement agencies were not involved in searching for witnesses, leaving it to human rights activists with very limited resources searched for them. Many conferences, rallies and other public actions had to be organized before the human rights activists got the necessary assistance from the state. When witnesses of the defense finally came to Chechnya despite risks being taken, the Judge decided to take a sick leave. Of course, this was not a coincidence because the defense lawyers were informed about the “sickness” of the Judge only on the day of the scheduled hearing. The attack on the human rights activist Ihor Kaliapin was made at the same day when he came to the court hearing to be witness of the defense side. Ukrainian Consul, Kovtun, also was attacked at the same time with Kaliapin. By the way Ukrainian Consul only now was allowed to meet Karpiuk and Klykh. Read also: Six things you need to know about the show “trial” of Stanislav Klykh2. Their whereabouts were concealed for 10 months and 1.5 years
The second point, during long period of time (10 months in Klykh’s case and 1.5 years in Karpiuk’s case) the men were hidden and nobody was allowed to visit them. There were no defense lawyer, no human rights defenders who could help them. Even relatives were not informed about their whereabouts. Furthermore, Karpiuk and Klykh were moved from one place to another approximately every two months to make it impossible to find them.3. They were tortured to confess against themselves and others

They were very severely tortured to confess in crimes they didn’t commit, but they were also demanded to witness against other people. For example the name of Arseniy Yatsenuk (the Prime Minister of Ukraine) as one of the Chechen militants is mentioned in the indictment 228 times. But we know exactly that Karpiuk didn’t witness against the Prime Minister of Ukraine. This is absurdity, but the case against Yatsenuk was opened by Russian authorities.