Pressmeddelande från YHRM (länk)
(Russian Federation)
On the 26th of January the representatives of opposition to the President of the Republic Ingushetia tried to arrange a protest action in the centre of Nazran. The idea of the meeting was to support “Putin’s course against corruption and terrorism”. The other aim was to make a decision what do with the signatures collected during the action “I haven’t voted”, which disclosed that the real number of people who came to election on the 2nd of December (election to the State Duma) was twice less than official results.
Law enforcement bodies declared this action illegal. In some regions of the republic a so-called contr-terroristic operation started. During the meeting there was a collision between the police and the demonstrators. Then fire was opened. Mass action was stopped.
Several journalists were arrested – among them a photocorrespondent of the RIA “Novosti” Said-Husein Tsarnaev and a correspondent of two Moscow newspapers Mustafa Kurskiev. Kurskiev who made photos of burning buildings
was bashed up.
Some journalists – special correspondents of the radio station “Moscow Echo”, a correspondent of Radio Liberty, journalist of “Novaya gazeta” and journalists of “The fifth channel” – were detained and held by the police until the evening. Then they were expelled out of Ingushetia.
The police also arrested and beat up human rights defenders from “Memorial”. They were examined as witnesses of the mass disorders.
