Ingushetia Gets Its Own Golunov Case

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 14 – There have been days when the Ingush authorities under Yunus-Bek Yevkuroov arrested more people than they did under Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov yesterday, but the outcry that followed the arrest of Fortanga journalist Rashid Maysigov and curator Zarifa Sautiyeva, the first woman detained, has exceeded almost any before.

            Ingush are especially outraged because of this attack on a journalist they are equating to Moscow investigative journalist Igor Golunov and on a woman, a violation of local mores about respecting females and a heroine for many because of her work in memorializing those who were victims of Soviet oppression (newsru.com/russia/13jul2019/maisigov.html).

            The residents of the republic appear to be especially outraged because they had expected better of the new republic head.  His failure to stop the wave of repression launched by his predecessor and indeed his willingness to continue it or alternatively his inability to stop it is returning the political temperature in Ingushetia to a boil (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337811/).

            Demands for the release of prisoners both old and new came from all opposition groups as well as from beyond the republic’s borders (doshdu.com/2019/07/14/ингушское-интернет-издание-заблокир/ and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337835/, fortanga.org/2019/07/obrashhenie-opory-ingushetii-o-zaderzhanii-aktivistki-zarify-sautievoj/ and fortanga.org/2019/07/idris-abadiev-kalimatov-obyazan-sdelat-vse-dlya-osvobozhdeniya-zarify-sautievoj/).

These demands were intensified when Maysigov’s lawyer reported that the journalist has already been the subject of torture (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337827/). Sautiyev’s day in court when it will be established how long she will be held is scheduled to be on Monday. At that time, more protests are likely (zamanho.com/?p=10561).

Meanwhile, doctors in Moscow said that the Ingush girl who had been a victim of torture was doing better and that they expected to be able to save her damaged hand (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337833/).