В ночь с 23 на 24 ноября 2007 г

Memorial Human Rights Center

Maly Karetny pereulok, 12 Moscow Russia

Tel. (495) 225-31-18

ABDUCTION OF JOURNALISTS AND RIGHTS DEFENDER IN INGUSHETIA

November 26, 2007

At night of November 23-24 2007 in the town of Nazran (Republic Ingushetia) from the “Assa” hotel unidentified armed men in masks abducted four people: three journalists of REN-TV channel - Artyom Vysotsky, Karen Sakhinov, Stanislav Goryachikh and Oleg Orlov, the Chair of Board of Memorial Human Rights Center. Black plastic bags were put on their heads, they were taken outside residential areas, threatened with murder, cruelly beaten and dumped in the middle of nowhere. Clearly, it was an action aimed at “closing” Ingushetia from outside observers.

In the evening of November 23, 2007, hotel “Assa” was guarded as usual by four armed security servicemen-personnel of Checkpoint Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) of Republic Ingushetia. At around 9 p.m. the armed security guards of the hotel were called off after a telephone ring by a “high ranking MVD official”. The security guards left by car, which had been sent for them. Since that moment the hotel was guarded by several unarmed security servicemen hired by the hotel.

Soon after 11 p.m. a “Gazel” mini-bus (and possibly another car) with armed men arrived to the hotel. Around fifteen men in masks broke inside, and pointing guns at the staff of the hotel, forced all men on the floor, including unarmed hotel security guards; all women were put next to the wall with their hands up. The armed visitors presented themselves as representatives of “anti-terrorist group.” They then carefully studied the registration book of the hotel guests after which divided into two groups, one of which went up to the first floor and the other one to the second floor. In room number 215 on the first floor lived Oleg Orlov. At 11.30 p.m. he heard a knock on his door. To his question “Who’s there” a low female voice mumbled something inarticulate. Having thought that this was someone from hotel staff Orlov slightly opened the door, which was then forcefully opened from outside. Three men broke into the room, and immediately pointed guns at Orlov. All the three were wearing black masks on their faces with cuts in the area of mouth and nose. One of them commanded “To the floor, face down”, after which Orlov was thrown on the floor. His arms were twisted behind. Someone started asking questions “What is the aim of your visit to Ingushetia?” “Business”. “What kind of business?” “Look it up in the papers. To study the situation with human rights. You are taking me for someone else. You are seriously mistaken.” “Where are the documents?” “In the pocket of my jacket. It’s in the wardrobe”.

Then Orlov heard the wardrobe door broken and saw with the corner of his eye that the jacket and the overcoat were thrown on the bed. At attempt to explain the unidentified visitors that their behavior was rude resulted in a strong blow on his ribs. Then the senior of the group commanded “All stuff – to the bag”. Orlov was raised, a black plastic bag was put on his head and he was dragged outside. Orlov was dressed in a light shirt and rubber flit-flops on bare feet. His request to let him put an overcoat on was ignored. Outside the hotel Orlov was put into a mini-bus. Then he heard that other detained people were being taken out of the hotel and put into the same minibus. One of the men in the car asked them a weird question “And who you are?” “We are REN TV correspondents. Why are we being detained?”. “There was a signal that the hotel is mined. Who of you has brought the explosives?” – “We are journalists, we have no explosives.” “We’ll bring you to the department, the senior will interrogate you and release.” Someone yelled from outside the minibus “The hotel has been cleansed, we can leave”. The remaining attackers leaped into the mini-bus, and it set off.

The detainment of REN-TV correspondents happened in a similar fashion. Three journalists, who arrived to Nazran the night before for making reportage about the situation in the Republic of Ingushetia before the elections were sitting in room 311 of Karen Sakhinov. The day before they made footage on various issues, including a special operation in the village of Chemulga, on November 9^th when security servicemen shot dead a 6 year-old-child. On November 24, a major unsanctioned protest rally was planned in Nazran against brutality of security services. The journalists were going to make a reportage about this rally.

Their door was knocked at and the same happened as with Orlov, with two differences, first: Stanislav Goryachikh tried to disobey the commands and was beaten, second: armed men in masks were carefully searching for something in the belongings of the correspondents. Several times one of the attackers asked: “Have you found it?” and finally he got an answer “Here, I found it!”, then all the three journalists with black plastic bags on their heads were dragged outside.

The mini-bus with the abducted people was moving for over an hour. Any attempts to ask a question or to express indignation were aborted by commands “Shut up!” After a while the detainees were ordered to bend down. The order was supported by strong blows in the backs. Most likely at this point the mini-bus was driving past the police checkpoint. None of the checkpoints had stopped this mini-bus, although on that day there were numerous checkpoints especially at the exit from Nazran. The dayd before the protest rally police served in the emergency regime. Free movement of cars with a large number of armed men is possible only if they belong to a security agency. The minibus with the abducted people was moving along a fine road, which means that the perpetrators used the main road crammed with checkpoints, not some kind of sidewalk. Orlov, who was sitting next to the window, could make out lights in the houses through the black plastic bag on his head.

Subsequently the lights along the highway disappeared, the minibus made a turn and started driving along a bad, bumpy road. It became clear that the detained were not being taken to the ‘department’. The car stopped, the door was opened and the command followed “Get them out one by one. Liquidate them with a silencer".

At first the correspondents of the TV crew were taken out, subsequently Orlov. Detainees were thrown into the snow and the attackers started to kick them with boots on the heads, arms, ribs, in the area of kidneys, some of them between the legs. The detainees were treated differently – Orlov and Sakhinov received minor injuries, while Vysotsky and Goryachikh were beaten quite badly – their faces were smashed, they got strong blows on the ribs and in the area of kidneys. Visotsky lost consciousness.

Beatings went on for some time. Then there was a command “Lay still, do not move, if anyone raises before we leave, we’ll shoot you dead. Get out of here, so that we never meet you again”. The door was shut and the car left. By that time a plastic bag fell off Orlov’s head and he could see a light colored (beige or white) Gazel mini-bus leaving along a country road.

All the four detainees raised on their feet. REN TV correspondents asked Orlov who he was, he explained. They had to go somewhere, since they found themselves in the middle of a field covered with snow. Far in the distance they could see lights. Walking by the only road which the abductors used seemed unreasonable, so they walked across the field in the direction of the lights. All the four men were dressed in light clothes, two journalists were barefoot, in socks. It took 20-30 minutes to reach the lights, it turned out to be a new neighborhood with houses under construction, some of them were lit, but there were no people there. A regular road ran through the houses, but there were no cars moving along it. Vysotsky several times lost his memory and kept asking where he was, what had happened and who were the people next to him. The abducted walked along the road when they finally reached a gasoline station. Next to it was a sign “NESTEROVSKAYA” (this is a village in Ingushetia, located close to the administrative border with Chechnya). The frightened worker of gasoline station refused to let the frozen people in, but he explained that the police station was nearby.

In the police station the abducted were given hot tea, information about abduction was sent to the higher authorities and the first interrogation was carried out. Orlov called his colleagues from Memorial, the journalists called REN TV. Policemen took Orlov for identification of the site, where the four abductees were dumped from the mini-bus.

Then the victims were interrogated in Sunzhensky police department (ROVD), and municipal police department of Nazran (GOVD), then in the Investigating Department of the Prosecutor’s office. “Memorial” staff brought warm clothes. The policemen were sympathetic and helpful, although the personnel of GOVD, who received an order from higher authorities, did not let the journalists and Orlov go. Moreover, after 11 a.m. other journalists were brought to GOVD. They were detained without explaining reasons, treated politely but not allowed to go. The authorities obviously tried to prevent media from covering the protest rally, which was taking place in Nazran.

Finally Orlov left for Memorial office while the REN TV crew remained in the police station.

In the evening the President of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov invited the three journalists-victims of abduction to his office (the Chair of Memorial Oleg Orlov was not invited). Minister of Internal Affairs and Prosecutor of the Republic Ingushetia were also there. The President expressed his indignation at what happened, scolded the minister and ordered him to quickly investigate this crime and return the stolen equipment”, he also ordered to provide the journalists with security guards and immediately issue them documents, replacing the stolen passport.

It turned out that various items were stolen from two hotel rooms- 215 and 311. Two other rooms, where the correspondents lived were not opened, nothing was stolen. A lap-top, all documents, mobile phone, jacket, overcoat and a suitcase were stolen from Orlov’s room. Clothes were probably stolen because there could be documents in the pockets. All equipment (video cameras, editing lap-top, recorded tapes) as well as money, mobile phone, passport were stolen from the room of Karen Sakhinov.

The investigating department in Nazran of the investigating Committee with the Prosecution of the Russian Federation instigated a criminal case into crimes stipulated by articles 139 p.2 (violation of sanctity of home by using force), art. 144 p.1. (preventing legal professional activity of journalist by access of executive power) and article 161 p. a) and г) (burglary committed by a group of people according to previous agreement resorting to violence not dangerous to life) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The same day, all the four men were acknowledged as victims of this crime.

The question is: what has happened?

There is no clear answer to this question, yet.

One thing is clear – the journalists and the human rights defender were abducted by representatives of a state security agency. All the circumstances of crime support this conclusion. Obviously, these were professionals acting according to a previously practiced, very familiar to them scheme. This crime shows again how rudely and openly can security servicemen commit crimes in Ingushetia.

The abduction of November 24 is very likely to be a public demonstration. The abductors clearly did not aim to inflict too much harm on their victims. We know too well how security servicemen can beat in such cases, they can easily damage one’s health to such an extent that their victims end up in a hospital for a long time. In this case, the beating was part of a usual scheme, which was routinely reproduced this time as well.

Who and why has committed this criminal demonstration?

Several preliminary versions emerge, explaining what happened.

The president of Ingushetia speaks of some “destructive forces”, which aim at destabilization of the Republic. Who is the President hinting at? If the President is making such statements, the society should probably demand a more definite answer from him. Who are these destructive forces? Whom does he imply? If he has no answer, this probably means that the republican authorities have no control over the situation. According to the first version, certain forces within the authorities, wishing to change the leadership in the republic, try to show exactly this.

Alternatively, this crime could be directly linked with the protest rally planned for the 24^th of November. The perpetrators could also be from among those who carried out the special operation in the village of Chemulga, which resulted in killing of the child, i.e. those who committed the crimes which brought people out into the streets. By this abduction, the security servicemen, first, confiscated the footage and, second, prevented both the journalists and the human rights defender from monitoring the protest rally.

According to yet another hypothesis, security services who commit crimes in Ingushetia wanted to make this region as closed for independent observers – journalists, rights defenders, international organizations - as possible. Then they can continue doing what they are doing without consideration of international norms and human rights. That is why they wanted to show that none and nowhere can feel protected in Ingushetia. They did not have to inflict much harm, they just needed to clearly make their statement. For this reason they chose time when much attention was fixed on Ingushetia before the protest rally. They selected the victims whose abduction would create most of noise. That is why they selected the “Assa” hotel, where most of journalists, rights defenders and international organizations stay when they visit the Republic. As a result, according to the organizers of the crime, visiting Ingushetia can be problematic for any outside observers.

We will see in the future how successful were the perpetrators of this crime in their aims.

25.11.2007

Memorial Human Rights Center