MOSCOW, March 6 (RAPSI) – A court in the city of Grozny on Tuesday extended detention for Oyub Ttiyev, the director of the Chechen Republic’s office of Memorial NGO, who stands charged with illegal possession of drugs, until May 9, Russia’s Presidential Council for Human Rights reported via its Telegram channel.

According to the comment of the advisory body’s member Igor Kalyapin, Chechen investigators do not check the defendant’s claims that the drugs were planted in his car.

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.