The Chechen Supreme Court reduced by two months on October 31 the four-year prison term handed down by a district court in July to Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus chairman Ruslan Kutayev on a charge of illegal possession of drugs that human rights organizations are convinced was fabricated. At the same time, the Supreme Court formally requested the Investigative Committee to rule on whether statements made by Kutayev’s lawyer Pyotr Zaykin about two senior Chechen officials are libelous.
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