Ingush Demand Release of Seven Protest Leaders, Defense of Ingush Rights in Prigorodny District

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 3 – A group of Ingush intellectuals, led by Yakob Gogiyev of the Dzurduki Historical-Geographic Society has appealed to Vladimir Putin to release the seven Ingush protest leaders now on trial in Essentuki for their role in the March 2019 protests (fortanga.org/2020/12/intelligencziya-ingushetii-trebuet-osvobodit-semeryh-liderov-protesta/).

            Meanwhile, the Union of Teips called on the Ingush Popular Assembly to take up the cause of Ingush still living in the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia from which most fled in 1992. Those remaining, the Council says, are being deprived of their rights and benefits (fortanga.org/2020/12/sovet-tejpov-ingushetii-prizval-deputatov-zashhitit-interesy-ingushej-v-prigorodnom-rajone/).

            Ordinary Ingush are also becoming more angry, complaining that they can’t afford to travel to Essentuki to show their support for the Ingush Seven and saying that they are forced to keep track of what is going on there via social networks and independent media (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/357167/).

            Meanwhile, court officials said that the reason prosecution witnesses had not come to the session of the trial earlier this week was because of problems related to the pandemic’s spread in the region (fortanga.org/2020/12/prichinoj-neyavki-svidetelej-obvineniya-po-delu-ingushskih-aktivistov-nazvan-covid-19/).

            Today, there were two other moves on the legal front involving Ingush. In the first, Ruslan Barkhanoyev, convicted of using force during the March 2019 protests was released directly from the courtroom on the basis of time served (sobkorr.org/news/5FC88D41535C8.html and fortanga.org/2020/12/ingushskij-aktivist-ruslan-barhanoev-vyshel-na-svobodu-iz-sizo/).

            And in the second, a Russian court agreed, after two refusals, to move the trial of Murad Bekov, head of the Council of Teips of Ingushetia, back to Magas, the republic capital, where his supporters will now be able to attend (fortanga.org/2020/12/sud-dvazhdy-otkazal-advokatu-murada-bekova-v-perenose-zasedaniya/).