Kalyapin accuses Chechen rights defenders of escalating situation around Committee against Torture

Prior to the fire in the office, some Chechen rights defenders had been deliberately spreading false information about the activities of the Committee against Torture (CaT) and inflating the situation, said Igor Kalyapin, the head of the CaT. Despite the pressure, the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of rights defenders has decided to continue its work related to cases of kidnapping and torture in Chechnya.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the JMG has decided to continue the work of rights defenders in Chechnya, but is considering an option of moving its Chechen office to some other region – Dagestan or Stavropol Territory.

According to Kalyapin, the JMG is mostly working "not in the office, but at courts, prosecutor's office and investigating department."

In their turn, the lawyers of the JMG are drafting an application to the Investigating Department for Chechnya of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) about illegal detention by the police, said Sergey Babinets, a member of the JMG.

The Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have stood up for the CaT. In their turn, the law enforcement bodies of Chechnya refute all the allegations of pressure on the CaT.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.