19:12, 29 September 2016

Inquiry into attacks on rights defenders in Ingushetia and Chechnya is sluggish - CPT

Burnt car of the members of the "Committee against Torture" (CAT). March 10, 2016. Photo courtesy of Djambulat Ozdoev, Ombudsman of Ingushetia

The lawyers of the "Committee for the Prevention of Torture" (CPT) have addressed their complaint about the investigators' unsatisfactory work in the cases of attacks on journalists and rights defenders committed in Ingushetia and Chechnya to the Chair of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), the General Public Prosecutor and the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia.

In particular, the lawyers mention this year's March 9 attack on a minivan with journalists and rights defenders on the Ingush-Chechen border, and the attack on Igor Kalyapin, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council and the head of the CPT, committed in Grozny on March 16 this year.

On March 9, in Ingushetia, not far from the administrative border with Chechnya, a group of unidentified attackers beat eight rights defenders, journalists, and a driver of a minivan of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) on their way to Grozny. Their minivan was burned out. As a result of the incident, four persons, including journalists from Norway and Sweden, were brought to the Sunzha District Hospital.

On March 16, Igor Kalyapin, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council and the leader of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, was attacked near the "Grozny City" Hotel, from where he was evicted. According to an eyewitness, Igor Kalyapin was attacked by about 15 people, who knocked him down, threw about 20 eggs on him, and then dust him with flour and poured with green antiseptic.

Back in April, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights sent a request to Russian authorities on the course of inquiry into the above attack on the minivan. A month later he received an answer saying that the investigation was underway and under supervision of ICRF's central office. Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally ordered to clear out all the circumstances of the attack. The outcomes of fulfilling the order are disappointing – the inquiry is being conducted very inefficiently, says the message posted today on the CPT's website.

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