Ingush Political Prisoner Zarifa Sautiyeva Marks First Anniversary Behind Bars

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 12 – One year ago today, Zarifa Sautiyeva, the only Ingush woman to be arrested for participating in the protests against the border changes in Ingushetia and someone whom Memorial lists as a political prisoner, was detained by Russian siloviki. Because Russian courts have repeatedly extended her detention, she has now spent a full year behind bars.

            The latest such extension came on July 8 and means that she will be in pretrial detention until at least September 25. But her lawyer expects the authorities to drag things out further and extend her time in jail still further (fortanga.org/2020/07/zarifa-sautiva-god-pod-arestom-i-politicheskoe-presledovanie/).

            She was originally accused of attacking the police during a meeting in Magas, even though video recording showed that she was doing everything she could to prevent such attacks. Then the Russian prosecutors added a second charge, participating in an extremist community, because they could not prove the first and felt it would be easier to convict her of conspiracy.

            Sautiyeva, who has type two diabetes has suffered in detention both because food in those facilities is not halal and because she has constantly been moved about from Nalchik to Vladikavkaz to Essentuki and then again to Nalchik and has not always been able to get the medicines she needs.

            Her health has deteriorated, especially after she staged a brief hunger strike to protest her treatment. (Her lawyer convinced her to give it up.) But if her health has been weakened, her spirt remains good by all accounts, in part because of all the support she has received from Ingush society and others as well.

            Among the groups that have spoken out for her are the Union of Teips of the Republic of Ingushetia, the Union of Alims and Imams, deputies of the Popular Assembly of Ingushetia,

Russian Duma deputies, the Memorial Human Rights Organization and women’s groups in Kabardino-Balkaria, Adygeya, and Karachayevo-Cherkessia.

            Reflecting on the situation of her friend Zarifa Sautiyeva, the chief editor of the Fortanga portal, Izabella Yevloyeva, observes that she is certain that “everyone is ties, Zarifa and the others under arrest and the members of their families. All of us. Sometimes it seems that there aren’t any internal reserves remaining for the struggle.”

            “But this does not mean,” she continues, “that we have given in or washed our hands of this. And I am certain that Zarifa also will not give in … All this sooner or later will end. And our struggle, although it seems we may not win out in the short term has not taken place for naught.” 

            The struggle itself, Yevloyeva says, “has changed us and changed Ingush society. We all understand what we are up against. Fighting such a cannibalistic system isn’t ever going to be easy. But I believe in victory. I believe Putin and all his command will leave the scene. I believe in a better future.”