Defence of Ingush activists considers extension of their arrest illegal

A court extended the arrest of the defendants accused in the “Ingush case” by three months, although investigators did not present any real grounds for such decision, advocate Djabrail Kuriev reports.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the case against seven protest leaders in Ingushetia, accused of creating an extremist community, has been considered in the Stavropol Territory since November 2020. On October 7, according to the defence and the defendants, Dmitry Kava, the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, gave evasive testimony to questions about extremism in the defendants’ actions, while the defendants hoped that Dmitry Kava would confirm their peaceful intentions at a rally in Magas.

The defence of the activists insisted on questioning of top-ranking law enforcers, since, according to the testimony of defence witness Akhmed Kostoev, before the rally, law enforcers requested the leaders of the Ingush protest to help ensure security at the rally. Earlier, the same information, which contradicts the prosecution’s version of the activists’ extremism, had been voiced by defendants Musa Malsagov and Barakh Chemurziev.

*The organization has been put on the register of foreign agents by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ).