Scholars, Archivists and Museum Specialists from Across Russia Call for Release of Ingush Activist Sautiyeva

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 11 – Scholars, activists and museum specialists from across the Russian Federation called on the judicial authorities to release Zarifa Sautiyeva, the only woman Ingush activist detained after the protests this past spring, and drop all charges against her. So far 63 people have signed the open letter. 

            The full text of the letter has been released by the Memorial human rights organization and is available at memohrc.org/ru/news_old/memorial-publikuet-otkrytoe-pismo-v-podderzhku-ingushskoy-aktivistki-zarify-sautievoy. It is discussed at kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343426/  and fortanga.org/2019/12/deyateli-kultury-nauki-obshhestvennye-aktivisty-trebuyut-osvobodit-zamdirektora-muzeya-zarifu-sautievu/.

            The letter called for Sautiyeva’s “immediate release” and “an end to the criminal persecution of the scholar and activist” whose work has done so much to “preserve the memory of the victims of Stalin’s deportations” and who “actively cooperated with archives and real people in whose fate is reflected the tragedy of the Ingush people.”

            Despite this encomium, a court in Essentuki extended Sautiyeva’s time in detention for three more months, although it did order her transfer form the detention center in that Stavropol Kray city to Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria and closer to her native Ingushetia (zamanho.com/?p=15897).

            Meanwhile, another court extended the detention of another Ingush activist, Khasan Katsiyev, for three months. He will remain in detention now at least until March 23, 2020 (doshdu.com/ingushskomu-aktivistu-hasanu-kacievu-prodlili-arest-na-tri-mesjaca/).