Aushev and Katsiyev Released, Call for Release of Other Prisoners and Pledge to Continue to Fight for Ingushetia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 15 – Even though the authorities had announced that Rashid Aushev and Khasan Katsiyev would be released today, they waited until after working hours to do so apparently to show their ability to act as they like and to complicate the lives of the family and friends of the two Ingush prisoners.

            But the two, having been convicted on charges of attacking police during the protest last March and released on the basis of time served in pre-trial detention, showed no remorse, pledged to appeal their sentences, said they had been subject to psychological and physical pressure, and called for the release of others, including Zarifa Sautiyeva.

            They said that they had acted within the law before in protesting Yunus-Bek Yevkurov’s giveaway of ten percent of the republic’s territory to Chechnya and that they would continue to protest, again within the law, against that and against the continued detention of other Ingush activists (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/348378/).

            Meanwhile, in an action that may help some of the Ingush demonstrators still incarcerated, Amnesty International called on the Kremlin to take immediate action to protect the more than 500,000 prisoners in the Russian Federation from the coronavirus and especially the approximately 9,000 of them who are older than 60 (doshdu.com/amnesty-international-potrebovala-ot-rossijskih-vlastej-osvobodit-politzakljuchennyh-starshe-60-let-i-hronicheski-bolnyh/).

            The international human rights organization noted that it was especially concerned about the fate of “almost 97,000” people in Russia who are being held in preliminary detention, as most of the Ingush under arrest are. It said that conditions in preliminary detention facilities were especially threatening to the life and health of inmates.

            At the same time, Amnesty repeated its call for freeing all prisoners of conscience in Russian prisons and detention facilities, for allowing them to remain in house arrest until their trials, and to have unimpeded access to their lawyers, doctors, and families while under restrictions.