Thursday, December 26, 2019

A Second Rights Group in Ingushetia Crushed by Fines


Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 24 – Last month, Russia courts imposed crushing fines on the Memorial office in Ingushetia for failing to identify itself as a foreign agent in all of its activities. Now, these same courts have done the same with Ingushetia’s own Institute for Social Change, demanding the Institute pay 300,000 rubles (5,000 US dollars).

            Zalina Dzeit says that the group will appeal the decision but points out that it has not received any foreign funding during the past year and has closed its bank account thus eliminating the need to register as a legal entity (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343905/ and doshdu.com/ingushskuju-organizaciju-oshtrafovali-na-300-tysjach-po-zakonu-ob-inoagentah/).

            Meanwhile, elsewhere in the courts, two Ingush activists who admitted their guilt, Eliskhan Azhigov and  Musa Pliyev, were given sentences that with time served will allow them to return home in the coming days (https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343926/ and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343924/).

            Two Ingush activists who maintain their innocence, Musa Malsagov and Bagaudin Khautiyev, had their detentions extended until March 25 (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343913/), and lawyers for a third who also denies the charges , Timur Oziyev, said that prosecutors were presenting irrelevant information as evidence (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343920/ and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343915/).

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