Relatives of Ingush students arrested in Egypt state authorities' inaction

Russian officials and diplomats are doing nothing to release the four Ingush students kept in an Egyptian prison for a year now. Their health condition has strongly deteriorated, the wife of one of the students has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that five young people from Ingushetia were detained in Egypt in August 2018. Only on February 2, 2019, the information was confirmed that four of them were in prison. In April 2019, they were charged with extremism, espionage, and links with the "Islamic State" (IS, a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court).

During this period, employees of the Russian Consulate visited the detainees only twice, Hadishat Pugoeva, the wife of Ilez Aushev, one of the detainees, has stated.

She has noted that relatives' appeals to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Russian Consulate in Egypt and other authorities gave no fruit.

The case of the arrested students has already been considered by the first instance court, which acquitted the natives of Ingushetia; however, the Egyptian Prosecutor's Office appealed against this decision, the "Novaya Gazeta" notes, citing Magomed Mutsolgov, the head of the human rights organization named "Mashr".

In early August, Ms Pugoeva reported that the arrested young people complained about health problems. She associated this with poor nutrition and prison conditions.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 15, 2019 at 00:12 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.