22:48, 11 July 2024

Arrest of KBR blogger accused of slandering officials extended

Kazbek Shkhagoshev. Screenshot of a video https://t.me/patriotkbr/17472

A court in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has refused to transfer Kazbek Shkhagoshev to house arrest. Earlier, Kazbek claimed in court that he was tortured into self-incrimination within a case of attempting to sell narcotic drugs and slandering local officials.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in August 2023, the Urvan District Court extended Kazbek Shkhagoshev’s arrest. His defence insisted on considering the case in another region, since local law enforcers and judges were among the targets of criticism in the Kazbek’s Telegram channel.

Kazbek Shkhagoshev is accused of attempting to sell drugs on a large scale, as well as of slandering KBR officials and law enforcers in the “Pravda KBR” Telegram channel. If Kazbek had anything to do with this channel, it was indirect, his defence asserted.

In October 2023, Shkhagoshev declared his innocence and said that he was tortured after he had been detained on the highway by some “masked men.” “They wanted me to admit that I was selling drugs and that I am the administrator of the above Telegram channel,” he has explained.

After that, according to his version, he was laid on the floor, his hands and feet were tied, and he was tortured with electric shock. “When they offered to confess to selling drugs and to my administering the Telegram channel, I immediately refused and told them to torture me further: I had never used drugs and was not an admin. But they tortured me until I said what they wanted,” the edition has quotes him as saying.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 10, 2024 at 12:40 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot