Russian court jails top Chechen rights activist for 4 years

A court in Russia's province of Chechnya has sentenced a prominent rights activist to four years in prison on drug charges widely seen as an effort by the authorities to stifle a critical voice.

Oyub Titiyev has been in custody since his arrest in January 2018 on drug possession charges in what has been largely perceived as a vendetta against a rare critic of the Chechen government.

Titiyev was the head of the Chechen office of prominent rights group Memorial and played a major role in exposing extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and torture perpetrated by security forces in Chechnya.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who previously dismissed rights activists as liars and traitors, publicly called the 61-year-old Titiyev a "junkie." Titiyev's supporters say the case aims not only to silence the activist, who is known as a devout Muslim, but also discredit him in the eyes of the community.