Ingush leader promises to punish relatives of militants who refuse to surrender

Yunus-Bek Evkurov, the leader of Ingushetia, has warned parents and relatives of members of illegal armed formations (IAFs) that they will be punished in case if they do not persuade their children on the wanted list to surrender. Meanwhile, Ingush President has promised that all militants who come to surrender will be sentenced to minimum penalties.

In the evening of May 27, in Magas, at the meeting with relatives of local residents put on the wanted list for involvement in IAFs, the Ingush leader once again called on the people to meet the authorities' proposal.

"There are no and there have been no clear reasons why young people join bandits. If you wish, your children, who are hiding, will return to you, and I promise you that I would help them to adapt to civilian life. The IAF members, who deserve to be punished under law, will be sentenced to minimum penalties under the procedure of pre-trial agreement. However, this situation is better than the situation when they still commit crimes, and we pretend that we do not notice that," the "Interfax" quotes Yunus-Bek Evkurov as stating.

Yunus-Bek Evkurov has also mentioned the criminal grouping led by Arthur Gatagazhev, who was killed on May 24. According to law enforcement agencies, the criminal grouping was involved in 47 attempts on the lives of local residents. Yunus-Bek Evkurov has emphasized that "till the bitter end, the mother of Arthur Gatagazhev did not believe that her son was a militant and used to acquit him."