In Ingushetia, power agents take a lying-in from maternity home

In Nazran, the capital of Ingushetia, the escort has taken away Madina Malsagova, 20, from hospital ward to SIZO (pre-trial detention facility) six hours after delivery. She had also spent her last pregnancy months in the facility.

On March 22, at Nazran hospital, Ingushetia, Madina Malsagova, 20, gave birth to her first-born. In six hours after delivery, escorts entered the ward and took Madina away to the SIZO. The crying newborn was handed over to the grandmother. Natalia Estemirova, head of the Crozny branch of the HRC "Memorial", has told about it today to the "Caucasian Knot".

Madina Malsagova was detained together with the husband on November 19, 2008, in Plievo village in Ingushetia. According to Ms Estemirova, power agents are sure that Madina's husband was a militant who was search. The detention was made under Articles 318 ("Resistance to law enforcers") and 222 ("Bearing and storage of arms").

The operation was conducted by the Staropromyslovskiy ROVD; therefore, the detainees were brought to SIZO-1 there. The head of the facility's medical department had repeatedly notified the inspectors, both orally and in writing, that Madina Malsagova should be under permanent monitoring by obstetricians-gynaecologists because of her pregnancy, but it was never done.

On March 17, the trial in Nazran started. The advocate asked to change Malsagova's arrest for recognizance not to leave, but the judge rejected the petition. On March 24, the young mother asked the court to give her chance to breastfeed her baby, but she was also rejected - because of absence of some confirming medical documents.

It is not the first case when human rights activists draw attention to inhumane treatment of convicts in Northern Caucasus, including those sentenced for terrorism. "I've just come back from Dagestan and Ingushetia, where I saw that the problem of prosecutions against citizens professing the 'non-traditional Islam' is rather serious," Liudmila Alekseeva said on March 15. "The situation has plenty of local specificities. As I understood, there's not just a war of special agencies against Wahhabites. Frequently, some Islamic hierarchs involve these agencies in fight against other popular hierarchs to ensure their own exaltation in this or that region."