Advocates state violations of Ingush activists' rights by the court

The defendants in the "Ingush case" were awakened mid-night and taken to court; and in response to elderly people's request to bring them later, the judge threatened to conduct the trial without them, the activists' advocate has stated. The judge wants to artificially speed up the trial by squeezing advocates by agreement, the defence has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the consideration of the appeal in the case of the leaders of the Ingush opposition began on January 13, but the trial was postponed due to an advocate's illness.

Seven Ingush protest leaders were accused of creating an extremist community, and the court sentenced them to prison terms of 7.5 to 8 years. At a rally in Magas, the defendants, on the contrary, called protesters for refraining from riots, the defence keeps asserting.

According to Magomed Abubakarov, an advocate, the defendants were awakened shortly after midnight to be brought to the session at the courthouse, which is located one and a half kilometres from the SIZO (pre-trial prison), where they are kept.

"They were kept there in the conditions that Akhmed Barakhoev called as 'torture.' They are elderly persons with a bunch of diseases; it was very difficult for them to sit for hours in a paddy wagon and in enclosed spaces," Abubakarov has explained.

Ilez Barakhoev, the son and public defender of Akhmed Barakhoev, has treated the judge's behaviour as threatening. In his opinion, the judge treats the defendants "with a hostile bias."