Advocate complains about custody conditions of Ingush activist Akhmed Pogorov

The custody conditions at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Nalchik, where Akhmed Pogorov, a co-chairman of the World Congress of the Ingush People, is kept, humiliate his dignity and harm his health, his advocate, Magomed Gagiev, has complained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Akhmed Pogorov was arrested on February 26, 2021. In May, he was placed under house arrest, but his blood tension went up a lot at home. Despite doctors' protests, law enforcers took him away from the hospital in Essentuki, explaining this by the need for conducting some investigating actions. On May 26, the court ruled to place Pogorov for two months into the SIZO; and on June 22, the court extended the arrest by other three months.

Akhmed Pogorov had been wanted within the case of a clash of activists with law enforcers at the rally in Magas in March 2019. He was accused of organizing violence against law enforcers. Human rights defenders assert that the persecution of Pogorov, like other Ingush activists, has political reasons and is aimed at stopping criticism of the authorities.

According to Magomed Gagiev, the conditions in the cell where Pogorov is kept "fail to meet the requirements of the law and humiliate his human dignity." The advocate has pointed out that the cell has rotten floors and toilet in disorder; there are no glasses in the windows, but only bars.

Besides, there is no refrigerator in Pogorov's cell, and apart from the beds, there is only a table and a rusty cabinet. According to the advocate, keeping in such conditions "is harmful to one's health and in fact means torture."