Activists criticize police's attempt to revive case against Anokhina

The head of the Makhachkala ROVD (District Interior Division) has appealed the court ruling that acquitted journalist Svetlana Anokhina and the "Marem" volunteers after they were detained in the shelter for victims of domestic violence.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 10, Chechen law enforcers took Khalimat Taramova, a daughter of one of Ramzan Kadyrov's close associates, away from Dagestan, where she was hiding in a Makhachkala shelter for victims of domestic violence organized by the "Marem" human rights group. The journalist, Svetlana Anokhina, and "Marem" volunteers were detained in the shelter. They were accused of resisting the police, but all the detainees were acquitted by the Leninsky District Court of Makhachkala.

Now, the police are seeking to reconsider the decision of the above district court to close the case opened under Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (Disobedience to a lawful instruction of a policeman"), Katerina Neroznikova, the spokeswoman of the "Marem" project, has informed.

"This is that very case, when they dragged the girls down the stairs and left a lot of bruises on their bodies. Now, <law enforcers> want to challenge this and summon a witness to state that our girls obstructed the lawful police's actions. Who is the witness? It's Khalimat's father, Ayub Taramov," Ms Neroznikova wrote on June 25 in her Facebook page.

In his comment to Neroznikova's post, Vladimir Sevrinovsky, a journalist, ironically reacted to the police's demand to interrogate Khalimat Taramova's father as a witness. "An excellent witness, who broke into someone else's home, and first thing breaking the video camera," he wrote.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 26, 2021 at 10:25 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.