Extension of Sautiyeva’s Detention Slap in the Face to Ingush People, Mutsolgov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 9 – A Stavropol court’s decision to continue the detention of Zarifa Sautiyeva for another three months was not just unjust – all the charges against her are invented – but a slap in the face to the Ingush people, 16 of whose leaders offered to guarantee her return if she was released, and to the Ingush parliament, 13 members of which did the same.

            What that shows, blogger Magomed Mutsolgov says, is that the powers in Moscow and Magas have shown not only that they are prepared to act without regard to justice but also that they have nothing but contempt for the law and for the people and authorities of Ingushetia (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342/posts/42100).

            The Ingush blogger continues with a declaration that he is certain that “there will come a time when each of them will have to answer before the law, before the people, and I am absolutely sure, before God. To answer for all that they have done and also for all that they have closed their eyes to.”

            Also today, the independent news portal Fortanga published a lengthy portrait of another detainee, Musa Malsagov, who like Sautiyeva is accused of attacking siloviki and being part of an extremist organization (fortanga.org/2020/03/vidya-nespravedlivost-on-ne-mog-ostavatsya-v-storone-o-lidere-protesta-muse-malsagove/).

            The portal’s sketch of this remarkable plan provides some key insights into the Ingush protest movement in which Malsagov has been a senior leader since the very beginning. Among the most important are the following:

·         First, he blocked any meeting with former republic head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov unless cameras were present so that the powers that be would not be able to misrepresent what happened.

·         Second, he earlier resigned from the republic parliament when it became obvious that the powers that be had succeeded in transforming this democratic institution into a pocket organization that they entirely controlled.

·         Third, his authority was so great that after his arrest, the powers that be immediately evacuated him from the republic to a detention center outside Ingushetia lest his presence lead Ingush to storm the jail.

·         Fourth, despite the fact that his jailors prohibited him from using Ingush in his letters to his wife and supporters, Malsagov was nonetheless able to continue to provide guidance to both from his jail cell.

·         And fifth, his wife and four young children are now being supported by his extended family because his wife cannot work given her family responsibilities. As a result, the authorities have not been able to use pressure on her to force him to cooperate.