20:13, 26 December 2018

CaT succeeds in seeking investigation into kidnapping of an AI member in Ingushetia

Oleg Kozlovsky. Photo by the press service of "Kavkaz.Realii" (RFE/RL)

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) reported opening a criminal case on the fact of kidnapping in Ingushetia of Oleg Kozlovsky, a member of international human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI), the Committee against Torture (CaT) reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 15, the AI reported about the kidnapping and beating of Oleg Kozlovsky, who arrived in Magas to observe the protest action against the redistribution of the border with Chechnya. According to the AI, the kidnappers tried to force him to become their informant. Oleg Kozlovsky himself said that his wife and children were threatened with death.

The Ingush Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has reported it did not find any evidence of information about the kidnapping of Oleg Kozlovsky, and Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Evkurov called the report on kidnapping a provocation. However, rights defenders Denis Krivosheev and Igor Kalyapin believe that the kidnappers of Oleg Kozlovsky acted openly and with the connivance of the authorities.

"Doctors diagnosed Oleg Kozlovsky with a broken rib," the CaT recalled.

Oleg Kozlovsky himself expressed in his Twitter the hope that the case would be solved.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 26, 2018 at 03:04 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.