Caucasian Knot: The torture case against Albert Khamkhoev, a resident of Ingushetia, was suspended 13 times, although the main evidence in the case has already been collected. Further, everything depends on the initiative of the investigation, said the lawyer of the “Committee against Torture” Magomed Alamov. The “Caucasian Knot” reported that on September 10, 2018, the court sentenced the athlete Albert Khamkhoev to 1.5 years of imprisonment conditionally, finding him guilty of possession of weapons. Khamkhoev pleaded not guilty and recalled that he was tortured after his arrest. The Prosecutor’s Office of Ingushetia has canceled another suspension of the investigation into the torture of Khamkhoev, the “Committee against Torture” reported. Even after 3.5 years, it is possible to effectively conduct an investigation into the Khamkhoev torture case, said Konstantin Gusev, an employee of the North Caucasian branch of the checkpoint.
Caucasian Knot: In one of the colonies, located in the Smolensk Region, three prisoners from Dagestan, a native of Azerbaijan and six other convicts have gone on a hunger strike. Their relatives have filed complaints about systematic bullying of inmates in the colony. Ten colony inmates, including the natives of Dagestan, Akim Esretaliev, Gadjimurad Rasulov, Shamil Nurmagomedov, as well as a native of Azerbaijan, Karam Alakberov, have stitched up their mouths and went on a dry hunger strike, their relatives told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent. According to their story, the colony staff is systematically and without due reason placing the same inmates into strict custody cells and dungeons (punishment cells). “They threaten to beat inmates; use foul language, and deliberately spoil the food. Thus, on April 9, a colony warden plunged a dirty stick into the pot with food, saying that ‘you pigs will eat this all the same.’ They took away the prayer rugs from Muslim inmates; there is no hot water in the colony,” says the relatives’ statement. They also pointed to religion-based discrimination.
