Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 6 – Magomed Mutsolgov,
an Ingush human rights activist, says leaflets found in the republic suggesting
that Ingushetia should seek to leave the Russian Federation and become part of the
Republic of Georgia are a complete provocation by the authorities who want to
charge protesters with the more serious crime of threatening the country’s territorial
integrity.
He writes in his blog today that he
is “absolutely certain that this is a provocation in the first instance against
the protest movement and that means against the Ingush people.” No one is
talking about such an idea or about any other moves that would violate the laws
of the Russian Federation (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342).
But if the Ingush opposition is
seeking to remain entirely within the law, the Yevkurov regime and its Moscow
backers show no such commitment. They
are moving those detained from place to place to make it difficult or even
impossible for their lawyers to show up in a timely fashion to take part in
their defense in court (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/336383/).
Worse, the lawyers say, they aren’t
even being informed (as required by Russian law) when the cases will be heard. And
family members report that they are being denied their right to attend the
hearings (fortanga.org/2019/06/zashhita-zayavlyaet-o-narushenii-prav-arestovannyh-ingushskih-aktivistov/).
The lead defense lawyers are calling
on the Ingush protest leaders to make the observance of Russian procedural laws
another demand when they resume their demonstrations. But the Yevkurov regime
is taking a hard line. It has accused these activists of “escalating the conflict”
and says that all arrests and court actions are taking place within a legal
framework.
No comments:
Post a Comment