HRC "Memorial" wants to ask president of Ingushetia to supervise the investigation of hijacking lawyer Itslaev's car

In Nazran, Ingushetia, a car of the lawyer engaged in investigating kidnappings was hijacked in broad daylight from near the building of the Investigatory Department. Law enforcers demonstrate unwillingness to investigate this incident, which makes human rights activists believe that this is a form of pressure on the advocate.

On January 28, at about 2:00 p.m. advocate Dokka Itslaev, head of the representative office of the HRC "Memorial" in the city of Urus-Martan (Chechen Republic), arrived in his light-silvery VAZ-21101 passenger car in the city of Nazran (Republic of Ingushetia) to the building of the Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Ingushetia.

On the following day, Dokka Itslaev wanted to deliver to the secretary of the Investigatory Department his petition on the criminal case about kidnapping at night on November 24, 2007, in Nazran from the guarded "Assa" Hotel of three members of the filming team of the REN-TV Company - Artyom Vysotsky, Karen Sakhinov and Stanislav Goryachikh, - and Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial".

After staying inside the building for about 7-10 minutes, Mr Itslaev went out and could not find his car. He immediately reported the hijacking to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Ingushetia and the Nazran GOVD (City Militia Department).

For the first two days, the law enforcement bodies did nothing at all. Only on January 30, the GOVD investigatory department opened a criminal case on the fact of hijacking. However, during the four days that have elapsed after the incident nobody was interrogated, except for the victim himself.

Dokka Itslaev, a human rights activist and an advocate, takes part in numerous cases on illegal violence applied to employees of state power agencies to residents of Northern Caucasus - Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. On some of the cases he filed complaints on behalf of the victims to the European Court on Human Rights, and on some of them the Court has already passed its guilty decisions against the Russian Federation of violations of applicants' rights. Dokka Itslaev is also involved a lot in kidnapping cases.