Ingush Activists Court had Ordered Released Still in Detention; Officials Blame the Mails

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 10 – Two Ingush protest leaders, Bagaudin Myakyev and Ruslan Dzeytov, whom a Stavropol court ordered released from detention to house arrest have not been set free, with jail officials saying they haven’t received the necessary documents and blaming the mails for that even though they were present by video conference when the judge gave his order.

            The lawyers of the two are concerned about what may be a delaying tactic (fortanga.org/2020/04/dvuh-uchastnikov-protestov-ne-vypuskayut-iz-sizo/) especially because other courts have ordered Ingush activists released but then nothing has happened. One today involves Zakri Bopkhoyev, now held in Kabardino-Balkaria.

            That republic’s Supreme Court ordered that he be released from preliminary detention and be under house arrest today, but as of the evening, the republic interior ministry has not posted that order and Bopkhoyev remains behind bars (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/348195/). Officials have not made any comments at all.

            Adding urgency to these cases is that the pandemic is spreading rapidly in the North Caucasus. There are now 29 confirmed cases in Ingushetia alone, up from 25 the day before. And many fear that this virus will spread even more rapidly in detention centers than in the population at large (doshdu.com/v-ingushetii-severnoj-osetii-i-dagestane-vyroslo-chislo-zabolevshih-koronavirusom/).