CPJ demands to release Rashid Maisigov

Authorities should stop persecuting the Ingush journalist, Rashid Maisigov and investigate his applications about torture, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has stated. At the trial, Maisigov refused from his confessions.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Rashid Maisigov was detained on July 12, 2019, after a search, during which a package of some white powder and leaflets with calls to attach Ingushetia to Georgia were found in his house. According to his advocate, after his detention, Maisigov complained about torture with electric current.

"Russia has a long history of fabricating accusations against journalists, who perform an important mission and whose work should be respected, not criminalized," Carlos Martínez de la Serna, the CPJ director, has stated.

For the "Fortanga", Rashid Maisigov wrote materials about corruption, unemployment and human rights violations in Ingushetia, the CPJ reports.

In his testimonies signed under torture, Maisigov confessed that he had bought heroin.

Although Maisigov has refused from his confessions, they will still be attached to the case files; and this will give law enforcers a reason to launch a new wave of persecution of activists, the "MBKh-Media" reports. The figurants in the Maisigov's case are, in particular, Batyr Bogatyryov, a deputy chairman of the Council of Teips of the Ingush people, and Isabella Evloeva, an activist.