Verdict against Ingush activists challenged at SC’s Panel

The defence of those convicted under the Ingush case has filed a complaint against the verdict with the Panel of the Russian Supreme Court (SC) and will seek to lift the restrictions in effect after their release. Four of the convicts, including the elderly Malsag Uzhakhov and Akhmed Barakhoev, remain behind bars.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in February 2024, Ismail Nalgiev, Bagaudin Khautiev and Barakh Chemurziev, having served most of their eight-year-long imprisonment, asked the court to replace the remainder of their terms with some freedom restriction measure not involving custody. In May 2024, the court refused to grant the petitions. The Stavropol Territorial Court upheld this decision. On February 4 this year, Khautiev was released. On February 18, after serving his full term in the case of an extremist community, Chemurziev was released from his penal colony.

"Now, for six months, Barakh Chemurziev cannot change his permanent residence and leave his municipality without the consent of the respective state body ... and must register with this body once a month," his advocate, Magomed Bekov, has explained.

Also, the released convicts are prohibited from holding state and public positions for three years.

"Chemurziev has elderly parents; he is a father of many children; and his eldest son is disabled. Khautiev was absent from home for many years; and his family lived without a breadwinner. Now they need to restore their health and take care of their families," an Ingush activist has added, treating the ban on leaving the boundaries of their settlements as an actual ongoing freedom deprivation.