Another attack on a human rights worker in Grozny

Igor Kalyapin, the head of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, was attacked today in Grozny, according to one of his colleagues, Dmitry Utukin. Kalyapin was reportedly beat up and pelted with eggs outside the “Grozny-City” hotel.

Immediately beforehand, Utukin says the hotel manager and several armed police officers came to Kalyapin's room and evicted him from the hotel. As he was exiting the building, Kalyapin was attacked.

• On several occasions, Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov has publicly criticized Kalypin, accusing him of financing local terrorists. In December 2014, Kalyapin appealed to federal police when Kadyrov promised to raze the homes of terrorists' relatives and expel them from Chechnya. Shortly thereafter, Kalyapin's apartment-office in Grozny was burned to the ground.
• On March 6, 2016, Chechen-speaking masked men beat up a group of journalists and human rights workers from Kalyapin's organization in Ingushetia near the Chechen border. The men forced the group from its minibus, and then set the vehicle on fire.