Defendants in Moscow riots case ask to question interior minister.

MOSCOW, August 19 (Itar-Tass) - Defendants in the case over mass
disturbances in Moscow's Manezhnaya Square last December asked the court
on Thursday to question Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, Moscow police
chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev and former Moscow police spokesman Viktor
Biryukov.
"Today, defendant Ruslan Khubayev filed a petition to summon to the
trial Nurgaliyev, Kolokotsev and Biryukov, and question them as witnesses.
Other defendants and their lawyers supported the petition," said Dmitry
Agranovsky, who represents the interests of one of the defendants.
According to Agranovsky, Kolokoltsev and Biryukov were in Manezhnaya
Square during the rights, therefore they witnesses those events.
"As for Nurgaliyev, the defendants want him to tell the court where he
got the information that it was leftist radicals who staged the riots,"
the lawyer said.
Also on Thursday, the defense asked the court to return the criminal
case to the prosecutor. "The case materials do not indicate how our
defendants are involved with 27 police injured in the riots. This fact is
a violation of law," Agranovsky said adding that "other violations have
been found."
A number of defendants and their lawyers lodged other petitions on
Thursday. The judge is to announce the court's decision on them on August
25.
The defendants are Belarussian citizen, activist of the unregistered
public association "Other Russia," and Strategiya 31 movement Igor
Berezyuk, two "Other Russia" activists Krill Unchuk and Ruslan Khubayev,
and Leonid Panin and Alexander Kozevin. All are in custody.
Berezyuk was charged with calls for mass disturbances, hooliganism,
inciting hate or strife, use of violence on government representative and
involving minors in the commission of crime.
Khubayev, Unchuk, Panin and Kozevin were charged with alls for mass
disturbances, hooliganism and use of violence on government
representatives.
Mass disturbances in central Moscow occurred on December 11, 2010.
They were provoked by the murder of Spartak fan Yegor Sviridov in a fight
with North Caucasus natives, which happened several days before.
Up to 5,000 football fans and representatives of nationalist
organizations gathered in Manezhnaya Square, indignant at police, who
initially detained the six persons suspected of involvement in the murder,
but later released five of them on recognizance.
The unsanctioned rally escalated to clashes with police.
Criminal cases were opened over riots in Manezhnaya Square and the
subway stations Kitai-Gorod, Tretyakovskya, Tverskaya, and Filyovsky Park.
Five suspects were detained in the period from January to April 2011.
"The investigation into the criminal cases against other participants
in the riots continues," Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin
said.