Human rights activists were detained for filming the Investigative Committee building in Cherkessk

On Sunday, June 5, Asmik Novikova, head of the research programs of the Public Verdict Foundation, and a volunteer of the foundation, documentary filmmaker Ksenia Gagai, were detained by an armed group of police officers and taken to the building of the E center in Cherkessk, according to a press release from the Public Verdict. received OVD-Info.

The detention took place after the distribution by the local Investigative Committee of an orientation about the “extremist appearance” of Novikova and Gagai. The head and deputy head of the Center "E", a member of the criminal investigation department, an investigator of the Investigative Committee came to question the detainees.

Novikova and Gagai came to Cherkessk to shoot a documentary about Ruslan Rakhaev , whose case is being handled by the Public Verdict. Filming took place at Rakhayev's house, on the streets of the city, in parks, near the building of the police stronghold, where operatives illegally held Dakhir Dzhankezov, who, according to the investigation, died through the fault of Rakhayev. Novikova and Gagai filmed the city, as well as the building of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for Karachay-Cherkessia, which provoked their detention.

After three hours, which the women spent in the "E" center, they were released after completing the interview protocols. No protocols on an administrative offense were drawn up, and there was no talk of this. On Monday, June 6, Xenia Gagai received a call from Center “E” and was asked to send photographs, as it was necessary to confirm that the women were not wearing hijabs. Apparently, having some difficulties with viewing the recordings from the surveillance cameras on the building of the Investigative Committee, law enforcement officers continue to insist that those who filmed the building "looked like extremists."

The Public Verdict Foundation considers the detention of the organization’s employees unlawful and plans to send complaints to law enforcement agencies with a request to provide justifications for the detention, as well as to check the actions of the employees of the Investigative Committee who sent the “orientation” and employees of the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs.