Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 27 – For the first
time, a court in the North Caucasus has allowed an Ingush demonstrator under
detention to be released and await trial under house arrest, leading some to
wonder whether this represents a turning point in the Russian government’s
handling of the detainees or a one-off event.
The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria
has allowed activist Ibragim Dugiyev to leave detention and remain under only
house arrest until his trial, an unprecedented action since the Ingush protests
began last year. Many hope that this will be extended to other prisoners, but
Dugiyev’s lawyer suggests his client may be a special case (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/340617/).
Visti Tsoroyev says he thinks
Dugiyev was treated in this way because he earlier had more serious charges
dropped against him and has been in detention far longer for those that remain
than legal guidelines call for. Other Ingush prisoners haven’t been as
fortunate (fortanga.org/2019/09/domashnij-arest-figuranta-ingushskogo-bolotnogo-dela-eto-tendentsiya-ili-isklyuchenie/).
Were this approach to be extended to
other Ingush prisoners, it would significantly reduce tensions in the republic;
but it might also mean that those released might become politically active even
if they were required as a condition of such release not to engage in such
activities, a possibility that officials likely do not want to risk happening.
Meanwhile, in another Ingushetia-related
development, activists have discovered that the organizers of the upcoming “Waynakh
Congress in Turkey” have been putting out false information about who is coming.
One scholar who reportedly has come to Turkey denied it and said those behind
the lie were trying to discredit her (fortanga.org/2019/09/ne-mytem-tak-podlogami-organizatory-kongressa-v-turtsii-zamanivayut-uchastnikov/).
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