Criminal case opened on incidents around JMG office in Chechnya

A criminal case into the arson of the office of the Joint Mobile Group (SMG) of rights defenders in Grozny, and the detention by policemen of Sergey Babinets and Dmitry Dimitrov, the employees of the JMG, was opened by investigating authorities.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in December 2014 the lawyers of the JMG turned to law enforcers asking to check the circumstances of the visit of three men to their office, subsequent ignition, as well as the persecution of the above employees by people in masks, which happened on December 13, 2014. Sergey Babinets and Dmitry Dimitriev declared illegal actions of policemen, saying that they were kept for several hours the day before in their rented apartment and that law enforcers confiscated all their equipment.

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) opened a criminal case on February 12, after the application of rights defenders.

The outcome of the investigation of the above case largely depends on who will be in charge of the inquiry, said Anton Ryzhov, a JMG member.

According to his story, if the criminal case gets to the republic's MIA, there is a big chance that it would be "braked down". If it goes to ICRF investigators, then, we may hope for a fair outcome of the inquiry, Ryzhov has stressed, as quoted by the "New Izvestia".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.