Adygea: members of "Greenpeace" and "EcoWatch" expedition released from police station

Today, at about 12:00 a.m. Moscow time, members of the fire prevention expedition organized by the "Greenpeace" and the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch), who went to extinguish fires in Adygea, were detained on the territory of the republic. This was reported by Alexander Popkov, an advocate of the human rights organization "Agora".

At 2:30 p.m., members of the expedition were released from the Yablonovsky OVD (Interior Division) of the Takhtamukai District of Adygea, reports Maxim Rebechenko, an activist of the "EcoWatch", who was among the detainees.

The activist states that law enforcers checked IDs of all the detained ecologists and volunteers. Moreover, they searched the cars of the expedition members. "We were told that they have no claims against us and promised to provide a patrol car to escort our cars," Maxim Rebechenko told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the activist, the police explained that ecologists and activists were detained because of the operative information about suspicious people in camouflage uniforms. "We were told that those suspicious people wanted to set up an illegal field camp on the territory of Adygea. Policemen searched our cars and found no tents; however, nevertheless, we were still brought to the police station," said the ecologist.

In his turn, advocate Alexander Popkov has stated that the policemen had no legal grounds to detain the ecologists and even less legal grounds to bring them to the OVD.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.