Press Release, 6.09.2023

Photo: Ruslan Mutsolgov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 5 September, a press conference “The Ingush case. The Results” was held at the central office of the Yabloko party in Moscow. Public defenders spoke about the four-year history of the Ingush case and the appeal of the verdict: Ruslan Mutsolgov, Chairman of the Ingush Yabloko, Oleg Orlov, Co-Chairman of the Memorial Human Rights Centre, and Valery Khatazhukov, head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Public Human Rights Centre. Lawyers Magomed Bekov, Andrei Sabinin and Bashir Tochiyev also answered journalists’ questions.

On July 28, 2023, the Stavropol Regional Court completed consideration of the appeal of the defence and upheld the sentence to Malsag Uzhakhov, Akhmed Barakhoyev, Zarifa Sautiyeva, Musa Malsagov, Ismail Nalgiyev, Bagautdin Khautiyev and Barakh Chemurziyev. The defendants in the Ingush case received from 7.5 to 9 years in prison.

All of them were convicted for participation in a 2018 national gathering against changing the borders of Ingushetia in favour of neighbouring Chechnya.

According to public defenders, the actions of the authorities within the framework of the Ingush case were one of the first signs of increased repression throughout the country.

Photo: Oleg Orlov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Oleg Orlov said that in November 2021, his client Zarifa Sautiyeva turned to him from the “aquarium” in the courtroom with a question: “Oleg Petrovich, do you understand what they are preparing for us? I don’t mean a sentence, I mean all of us, the whole country?”

These were prophetic words, Orlov notes: “Now in 2023, we all perfectly understand what they were preparing for us, where they brought our country and where the country has fallen down.”

The trial in the Ingush case was absolutely political, says Ruslan Mutsolgov, a human rights activist and leader of the Ingush Yabloko.

“The goal of this trial was not to uphold the laws, but on the contrary, to give legitimacy to the repressions that were unleashed in Ingushetia. Those methods that were tested in the Republic of Ingushetia, on the cases of the leaders of the protest and its ordinary participants, were transferred to other regions,” Mutsolgov noted.

Photo: Valery Khatazhukov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Valery Khatazhukov believes that the North Caucasus represents a political testing ground for the whole of Russia. “Everything began here. When some kind of elections were still taking place in Russia, and there was some kind of real separation of powers [in the country], we have not had this for a long time already. We were a kind of training ground, and now the whole of Russia is turning into a large North Caucasus… And we urge the federal authorities to pay attention to this situation and try to somehow change it.”

Khatazhukov also stresses that if conditions were created for discussion of the problem of the border, if, in addition to legislation, traditional institutions, including religious ones, were used, then “the Ingushs would come to an agreement with the Chechens”. In general, assessing the course of the trial and the decision of the court, the participants in the Ingush case note total lawlessness.

Photo: Magomed Bekov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

“If, for example, we comment on the Ingush trial as a whole from the standpoint of law, from the standpoint of justice and from the standpoint of compliance with the law and common sense, then this does not make any sense. Here we can only talk about how the law was violated. How the law was violated by the court of first instance, the court of second instance and during the preliminary investigation. If we spoke from a position of law, they would have been acquitted,” Magomed Bekov says.

The lawyers of the defendants of the Ingush case stress that they are ready to go through all judicial instances to protect the Ingush activists. Meanwhile, the defence has not yet received an appeal decision, and the cassation hearing of the case is likely to take place only in 2024.

Photo: Andrei Sabinin (right) / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Complaints about unjustified detention and repeated extension of detention without sufficient grounds have long been filed with the European Court of Human Rights, lawyer Andrei Sabinin notes. After the cassation, complaints will be filed against the verdict.

In addition, there is an opportunity to apply to the UN Human Rights Committee, and some of the those convicted in the Ingush case are planning to use this tool.