Former police officer: Ingush protest leaders tried to prevent clashes at the 2019 protest

On September 14, a regular meeting on the “Ingush case” was held in Kislovodsk - during it, Timur Khamchiev, a former PPS employee, confirmed that the alleged leaders of the protest were trying to prevent clashes between the protesters and the National Guard. This was reported by the Human Rights Center "Memorial".

The accused in the "Ingush case" are the leaders of the local opposition: Akhmed Barakhoev, Musa Malsagov, Ismail Nalgiev, Zarifa Sautiyeva, Malsag Uzhakhov, Bagaudin Khautiev and Barakh Chemurziev. Their case is considered by the Kislovodsk City Court. According to the investigation, they organized violence against security forces at a rally in Magas in 2019 (part 2 of article 318 of the Criminal Code with the application of part 3 of article 33 of the Criminal Code), and also participated in the organization and activities of an extremist community (article 282.1 of the Criminal Code ).

Timur Khamchiev is a former patrol platoon commander who appeared in court as a defense witness. He and 12 other PPS employees were fired for standing between protesters and security forces from the Russian Guard at a rally on March 27, 2019.

During his speech, Khamchiev said that, together with his colleagues, he was afraid of new clashes between the rally participants and the National Guard. Because of this, the PPS officers decided to go to the square and convince people to disperse.

The elders, among whom were Akhmed Barakhoev and Malsag Uzhakhov, supported them, Khamchiev noted. They also began to persuade the youth to calm down and disperse - however, some were hard to succumb to persuasion.

“This witness stated that there were no grounds for dispersing the gathering, that dispersal is not carried out in this way,” told the Caucasian Knot. lawyer Dzhabrail Kuriev

In June, one of the chiefs of the Ingush Interior Ministry also testified in favor of the alleged leaders of the protest in Magas.

During the process, they also interviewed three employees of the Russian Guard, who are victims in the case. The security forces told the court that they had no claims against the defendants and did not understand why they were treated as victims.

In August, became known the results of a psychological and linguistic examination, which were commissioned by the investigation in the framework of the “Ingush case,” . The experts did not find signs of calls for violence in the words of the alleged leaders of the protests in Magas.

• On March 26, 2019, a rally was held in Magas against changing the borders of Ingushetia - about ten thousand people came out to the action. Two thousand protesters remained in the square all night. In the morning they began to disperse them - as a result, clashes broke out between the security forces and the protesters .
• According to the Memorial Human Rights Center, as of June 3, 2021, 51 people were prosecuted in connection with the 2019 rally in Magas, and prosecution against three of them was stopped. More than 30 defendants in the "Ingush case" were sentenced to terms ranging from five months to three and a half years.