Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 3 – Zarifa Sautiyeva,
whom Memorial has labelled a political prisoner, will spend the first
anniversary of her arrest last year for involvement in the March 2019 protests
as a result of a decision by the Stavropol Kray court to extend her time behind
bars to at least August 2 (fortanga.org/2020/07/sud-prodlil-arest-zarife-sautievoj-eshhyo-na-mesyats/).
The decision, her lawyers say, is
not only completely illegal but also internally inconsistent as the kray court
overruled a lower court’s findings concerning the charges against her but said
she must remain in detention rather than await trial at home under
supervision. Like other Ingush
prisoners, Sautiyeva has seen her detention extended again and again.
That process alone, her attorney
says, is a violation of her rights and puts her at greater risk of being
infected by the coronavirus given that she has to be moved about for hearings where
these decisions are announced. It also inflicts unreasonable mental suffering
by raising and then dashing hopes of release.
Meanwhile, a court in the Ingush
capital of Magas held another hearing in the case of Rashid Maysigov, a former
Fortanga writer whom the powers that be have charged with possession of
narcotics and of broadsides calling for the independence of Ingushetia (fortanga.org/2020/07/eks-redaktor-fortangi-ne-priznal-vinu-v-upotreblenii-narkotikov/).
Maysigov
denies all charges, even though he initially confessed under pressure, says
they were brough exclusively as a result of his journalistic work covering the
Ingush protests and argues that siloviki planted both the drugs and the broadsides
in his apartment in the course of a search they conducted there.
The
journalist’s lawyers sought to have the items seized during the investigation
excluded from the case, but the judge denied their request. However, he did
agree to call for an investigation of the documents that have been presented
regarding those documents before ruling further.
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