Ingush students in Egyptian prison go on hunger strike

Ingush students Ilez Aushev, Ismail Chemurziev, Ramazan Pliev and Ali Dzeitov, who are in an Egyptian prison, went on a hunger strike. They refused food until they were acquitted, Aushev's wife Khadishat Pugoyeva told Novaya Gazeta.

Aushev, Chemurziev, Pliev and Dzeitov began their hunger strike on 2 April. They demand that they be released, as no specific charges have been brought against them.

Pugoeva claims that the fate of the fifth Ingush student, Khizir Dugiyev, is still unknown. At the same time, the "Caucasian Knot" reported in March that the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in Ingushetia received information about Dugiev, he is in prison in Cairo. The publication reported on five students who went on a hunger strike.

Recall that in August 2018, the Egyptian special services detained ten people from Ingushetia, five of them were subsequently released. The head of the human rights organization Mashr, Magomed Mutsolgov, told Novaya Gazeta that the detentions took place on the same day, people lived in the same building, but in different apartments.

Pugoeva claimed that she was in Egypt legally, she was also among the ten detainees. On August 24 last year, she was deported. According to the authorities, she reported that she was expelled because her husband allegedly had an expired residence permit.

Nothing was known about the five detainees for about six months, but at the end of February it turned out that Aushev, Chemurziev, Pliev and Dzeitov were in the Tora prison. It was reported that they were accused of extremist activities, but what exactly the charges were, was not specified. Pliev's father Askhan told the students that they were being interrogated about Dugiyev.