MOSCOW, June 29 (RAPSI) – Trial of Oyub Titiyev, the director of the Chechen Republic’s office of Memorial NGO, who stands charged with illegal possession of drugs, will begin on July 3, the Shalinsky City Court’s press service has told RAPSI.

The hearings will be held behind closed doors.

According to the Interior Ministry of Chechnya, on January 9, police officers stopped Titiyev’s car during a preventive control operation. As police officers searched the car, a package filled with a plant-based substance smelling of marihuana was found. The package was then sent for analysis while the head of the office was brought in for a medical examination. Titiyev was put in detention.

Chairman of Russia’s Presidential Council for Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov has repeatedly spoken in favor of carrying out the investigation into Titiyev by the federal authorities. Among the reasons supporting the Council’s stance, Fedotov specifically noted the need to check the inference that drugs were planted in the activist’s car and investigate a series of attacks against Memorial offices in Ingushetia and Dagestan.