Special agents fix data of picketers in Moscow in defence of Chechen rights defenders

A series of solo pickets in support of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of rights defenders and the Committee against Torture (CaT) in Chechnya was held on December 16 in Moscow without detentions; however, agents of the FSO (Russia's Federal Security Service) and FSB fixed the personal data of the activists who took part in the action.

The pickets at the president's administration were held by activists of the Amnesty International (AI) and employees of the Fund "Public Verdict", who held posters calling to ensure safe work of rights defenders in Chechnya.

"A policeman came, looked into the passport of the picketer with a poster and left. Then, two men in civilian clothes came up and began rudely demanding to show passports of the picketers and other nearby activists. They showed their IDs reluctantly and didn't allow photographing them," Sergey Nikitin, the Director of the AI's office in Russia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

One of them showed an ID of the FSO, the other – of an FSB lieutenant. They did not disperse the picketers, but made photos of all the posters and activists' passports. said Nikitin.

On December 13, it became known about the fire in the Grozny office of the JMG, which comprises rights defenders of the CaT. On December 14, in Grozny, two lawyers of the CaT – Sergey Babinets and Dmitry Dimitriev – were detained and soon released.

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