Relatives of the Russian woman arrested in South Ossetia plan picketing in Moscow

Relatives of Svetlana Osipova, director general director of a Russian company, who went on hunger strike in Tskhinvali, are going to hold a picket in Moscow in defence of all the Russians imprisoned in South Ossetia.

The "Caucasian Knot" was told by Liza, Svetlana's daughter, the picket is planned for the near future.

According to her story, she had earlier applied for the action but was refused. "I wrote twice to the Prefecture of the Tsentralny Administrative District of Moscow; the application was made correctly, but I was twice rejected," the daughter has explained.

According to Osipova's daughter, she was told "in private" that in the future Moscow authorities would not sanction this sort of actions. "She was told unofficially that Moscow would not allow any actions against Eduard Kokoity, President of South Ossetia," Ruslan Makaev, head of the North-Ossetian human rights organization "Transport-A" and Osipova's public defender, has explained.

Mr Makaev is sure that today it is necessary to draw attention of Russian authorities to what happens in South Ossetia, in particular, to the situation with the Russian citizens kept in South-Ossetian prisons. He asserts that their constitutional rights are broken, while the local penitentiary system fails to meet the provisions of the law.

The daughter of the Russian businesswoman believes that her mother is also kept in inadequate conditions. In particular, she is not rendered the necessary medical aid.

Ruslan Makaev said that Ms Osipova had already addressed for support the Russia's representative office in South Ossetia and Ambassador Elbrus Kargiev personally, but received no essential help.

In its turn, the Russia's embassy told the "Caucasian Knot" that they keep their eye on the situation with Osipova. "On our part, we use all possible resources to defend her rights," said Tamerlan Zaseyev, head of the consular department of Russia's embassy. Thus, according to his story, on Osipova's case the consulate is closely cooperating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Prosecutor's Office of South Ossetia, who have already organized two meetings of Osipova with Russian officials.

"We sent several notes to this end to the local MFA, starting from her health condition and schedule of her walks in the prison yard and up to the protracted, in our opinion, course of investigation and request to accelerate, whenever possible, investigatory actions and start litigation," Mr Zaseyev said.

Speaking about the businesswoman's custody conditions, he recognized that they are below any legal requirements. According to the diplomat, it is known to employees of the Red Cross, Russia's embassy and Penitentiary System; however, according to his story, now the young republic has no money for building a new or repairing the old prison. The General Prosecutor's Office of South Ossetia refused to make comments on the situation.