Residents of Ingushetia and North Ossetia report searches and detentions of activists

Today, Amirkhan Bekov, Maksharip Batygov, Ismail Khamkhoev, and Magomed Barakhoev have been detained after a raid conducted by law enforcers in three Ingush and one North-Ossetian villages.

Local residents reported that between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. Moscow time, an Ural armoured car and several more tinted cars blocked the house and yard of Maksharip Batygov.

"As far as I remember, earlier, he had been taken away for a day and fined 10,000 roubles for participation in a rally and then released. I suspect that now they took him again for his participation in the rally in spring," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Akhmad, one of the Maksharip Batygov's neighbours.

The detentions also took place in the village of Nesterovskoye, reported advocate Magomed Bekov. "Amirkhan Bekov was detained, and, according to the preliminary information, he was taken to Vladikavkaz. Law enforcers explain the search by the fact that Amirkhan had taken part in the events in Magas in Ingushetia on March 27, 2019," Amirkhan Bekov wrote on his page in Facebook.

Eyewitnesses also reported searches and detentions of Ismail Khamkhoev in the village of Ekazhevo in Ingushetia, as well as Magomed Barakhoev in the village of Kurtat in North Ossetia.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 4, 2020 at 12:26 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.