International rights defenders urge Putin to investigate attacks on their colleagues

Representatives of the international human rights organizations "Human Rights Watch" (HRW), "Amnesty International" (AI) and "Front Line Defenders" (FLD), in their open letter have called on the Russian President Vladimir Putin to investigate the attacks on rights defenders and condemn the practice of collective punishments.

"Over the past few days, one of Russian human rights groups in Chechnya and its employees have faced arson (presumably), arbitrary detention, threats of physical execution and systematic oppressions." says the website of the AI.

Human rights activists say that the object of persecution was the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of Russian human rights organizations in Chechnya, headed by Igor Kalyapin.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 4 the central Grozny was attacked by militants. On the following day, the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said that houses of militants' relatives would be demolished, and their families would be expelled from Chechnya. Shortly thereafter, a series of arsons followed of such houses. The statement of the Chechen leader caused protests of rights defenders.

Later, various incidents occurred in Chechnya with local rights defenders. On December 11, at a press conference in Moscow, unidentified hooligans threw eggs at Igor Kalyapin; on December 13, in Grozny, a fire burst out in the office of the JMG; and on December 14, two lawyers of the Committee against Torture (CaT) were detained and soon released.

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