Sunday, September 29, 2019

For First Time, Courts Allow an Ingush Detainee to Await Trial under House Arrest


Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 27 – For the first time, a court in the North Caucasus has allowed an Ingush demonstrator under detention to be released and await trial under house arrest, leading some to wonder whether this represents a turning point in the Russian government’s handling of the detainees or a one-off event.

            The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria has allowed activist Ibragim Dugiyev to leave detention and remain under only house arrest until his trial, an unprecedented action since the Ingush protests began last year. Many hope that this will be extended to other prisoners, but Dugiyev’s lawyer suggests his client may be a special case (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/340617/).

            Visti Tsoroyev says he thinks Dugiyev was treated in this way because he earlier had more serious charges dropped against him and has been in detention far longer for those that remain than legal guidelines call for. Other Ingush prisoners haven’t been as fortunate (fortanga.org/2019/09/domashnij-arest-figuranta-ingushskogo-bolotnogo-dela-eto-tendentsiya-ili-isklyuchenie/).

            Were this approach to be extended to other Ingush prisoners, it would significantly reduce tensions in the republic; but it might also mean that those released might become politically active even if they were required as a condition of such release not to engage in such activities, a possibility that officials likely do not want to risk happening.

            Meanwhile, in another Ingushetia-related development, activists have discovered that the organizers of the upcoming “Waynakh Congress in Turkey” have been putting out false information about who is coming. One scholar who reportedly has come to Turkey denied it and said those behind the lie were trying to discredit her (fortanga.org/2019/09/ne-mytem-tak-podlogami-organizatory-kongressa-v-turtsii-zamanivayut-uchastnikov/).

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