Replacement of Khamkhoev with Eldjarkiev fails to stop complaints against Ingush CCE

After Timur Khamkhoev, the former chief of the Ingush Centre for Combating Extremism (CCE), was sentenced and replaced by Ibragim Eldjarkiev, who was killed in Moscow on November 2, reports of physical pressure on suspects at the CCE did not stop. In particular, Abdulmalik Albagachiev and Albert Khamkhoev complained about violence.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 2, Ibragim Eldjarkiev, the head of the Ingush CCE (also known as "E" Centre) was shot dead in Moscow. His brother also perished.

Athlete Albert Khamkhoev claimed that he had been tortured after his detention. A criminal case was instituted, in which an employee of the Centre for Combating Extremism of the Ingush Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) was involved as a suspect. Meanwhile, in September 2018, Magomed Alamov and Albert Kuznetsov, members of the Committee Against Torture (CaT), said that the investigation into the case on torture of Albert Khamkhoev was being delayed. In April, human rights defenders reported that the investigation had been resumed. However, Albert Khamkhoev was found guilty of possession of weapons and sentenced to 1.5 years of conditional sentence.

Abdulmalik Albagachiev also complained about pressure. In August 2018, he was found guilty of participating in the conflict in Syria and sentenced to nine years of imprisonment in a penal colony.

In his interview to a reporter of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", Abdulmalik Albagachiev referred to a statement voiced by Ibragim Eldjarkiev when he was still the acting head of the CCE of Ingushetia. "The only law here is us. Nobody is a judge for us," said Ibragim Eldjarkiev as quoted by the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" on October 26, 2018.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 4, 2019 at 06:26 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.