The leader of the Ingush protests was again extended his stay in a pre-trial detention center

The Essentuki City Court extended the arrest until February 25, 2022, of one of the defendants in the “Ingush case”, protest leader Akhmed Pogorov. This is reported by the publication "Fortanga".

Pogorov is charged under articles on participation in an extremist community (part 2 of article 282.1 of the Criminal Code) and organizing life-threatening violence against police officers (part 2 of article 318 of the Criminal Code with the application of part 3 of article 33 of the Criminal Code).

“Absolutely no evidence, just allegations that my client can hide, put pressure on witnesses, and so on. Standard wording, not a single piece of evidence confirming these fears,” said Magomed Gagiev, Pogorov’s lawyer, who cooperates with Memorial Human Rights Center.

After being detained in February 2021, Pogorov was placed in custody as a preventive measure, but on May 25, the activist was transferred to house arrest due to deteriorating health.

The next day, Pogorov was hospitalized, and the security forces took him straight from the hospital for interrogation. On the evening of May 26, the court in Essentuki again changed the preventive measure to imprisonment in a pre-trial detention center. On June 23, the arrest was extended for another three months, and then on September 21 for two months. Now the prisoner is in pre-trial detention center No. 1 in Nalchik.

• The criminal case against Pogorov was initiated after protests against the transfer of land from Ingushetia to Chechnya on March 26–27, 2019.
• According to the Memorial Human Rights Center, as of October 11, 2021, 52 people were prosecuted in connection with the 2019 rally in Magas, and prosecution against three of them was stopped. At least 37 defendants in the "Ingush case" were sentenced to terms ranging from five to nine months. On December 15, seven people whom the investigation considers, like Pogorov, leaders of the protest, were sentenced to terms ranging from seven and a half to nine years in prison.
• In September 2018, the authorities of Ingushetia and Chechnya signed an agreement to change the border between the republics, after which protests began in Ingushetia. On March 26, 2019, about 10 thousand people came to the rally in Magas. About two thousand protesters remained on the square all night. In the morning they began to be dispersed, as a result of which clashes broke out between the security forces and the protesters .