CaT's office moves to Grozny apartment of Natalia Estemirova's daughter

The Committee against Torture (CaT) will continue its activities in Grozny at the apartment, which has been provided by a daughter of Natalia Estemirova, a staff member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", who was killed in 2009.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 3, in Grozny, unidentified people attacked the office of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG), which employed members of the Committee against Torture. The attackers smashed the car of the human rights defenders and destroyed the JMG' office and apartment. The members of the JMG managed to escape. The CaT is recognized a victim in the case.

Immediately after the pogrom, Igor Kalyapin, the leader of the Committee against Torture, has announced that the activities of the human rights defenders in Chechnya will be not stopped. However, he has noted that the office will likely to move from Grozny. Igor Kalyapin has added that no actual office will be equipped at the Estemirova's apartment.

Albert Kuznetsov, the head of the CaT's Joint Mobile Group, has also confirmed that the human rights defenders plan to return to Chechnya. He has expressed an opinion that the attack on the JMG's office and apartment was aimed to raise difficulties for the activities of the human rights defenders in Chechnya. Albert Kuznetsov has also expressed his doubts about the neutrality of the ongoing investigation into the pogrom.

On June 9, Igor Kalyapin announced that he was preparing a report on the incident in Grozny for Vladimir Putin. In his report, Igor Kalyapin intends to refute the position of the Chechen authorities claiming that the staff members of the Joint Mobile Group had provoked the protesters' aggression by their actions.

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