Ingush Detainees who Refused to Undergo Psychiatric Exams Threatened

Paul Goble

            Staunton, October 21 – The seven Ingush protesters under arrest who were bussed to Stavropol to undergo psychiatric exams have refused to take part in them because the questions they were asked took the form of accusations rather than inquiries, their lawyers say. The authorities said if they didn’t agree, they would be sent to more distant places for new exams. 

            Since the Ingush protests began, the authorities have used jails in other republics to hold them to make it more difficult for their lawyers to prepare their cases and to keep them isolated from their friends and supporters, in violation of Russian law. Now, the powers that be are extending that illegal practice to psychiatric examinations (kavkazr.com/a/30225179.html and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/341460/).

            If Ingush prisoners are dispatched hundreds or even thousands of kilometers from their homeland, that in itself will be a form of torture intended to intimidate them and force their cooperation. Unless they get support from other Russian Federation human rights groups, the Ingush detainees face very difficult prospects. 

            Meanwhile, there were two other Ingush developments today worthy of note. In the first, investigators reduced charges against Khasan Katsiyev when they found they could not produce enough evidence to support their original ones. Now, if convicted, he faces no more than six months in prison and not the ten years he faced earlier (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/341420/).

            And in the second, the acting mayor of Magas, Magomet Marziyev, left his post after serving only a month.  No reasn was given and it appears it was not related to the protests but rather to conflicts over property in the elite. But his departure highlights the problems new republic head Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov is having finding new cadres (akcent.site/novosti/6236).