Ingush activist walks free after six years in prison

Ismail Nalgiev, an Ingush activist and human rights defender, has been released from a prison in the Stavropol region after serving the sentence assigned to him by the courts.

Though initially sentenced to eight years in prison, the courts accounted for his time spent in pre-trial detention. Аccording to Russian law, one day spent in a pre-trial detention centre counts as two.

Although released, under the court’s ruling, Nalgiev is still prohibited from engaging in public activities or holding certain positions for three years.

Nalgiev was originally detained in 2019 during mass protests against the transfer of part of Ingushetia’s territory to neighbouring Chechnya. He was a member of the public organisation Vybor Ingushetii (Choice of Ingushetia) and the Ingush Committee for National Unity, and actively opposed the land transfer agreement.

This controversial deal, signed by then-head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov in 2018, sparked mass demonstrations in Magas.

In 2019, Nalgiev was detained at Minsk airport while attempting to leave the country and was soon convicted on charges of organising mass unrest.

Throughout his imprisonment, Nalgiev maintained his innocence, insisting that his prosecution was solely due to his human rights work. International organisations, including Amnesty International and Memorial, recognised him as a political prisoner and called for his release.

‘Is it fair when a person who fights for the truth, who speaks the truth, ends up in captivity, oppressed? Perhaps it is unfair, but this is the law of the Almighty, and this has been the way of the world since time immemorial. No one should worry about this. No one should see these trials as a misfortune upon us in this world […] Rather, it is purification, a reward from the Almighty Allah’, Nalgiev said in his final statement in court.

Before his arrest in 2019, Nalgiev was actively involved in election monitoring and human rights activities with Vybor Ingushetii. The authorities repeatedly accused him and his associates of attempting to destabilise the situation, while Nalgiev himself insisted that his work was aimed solely at ensuring fair and transparent elections.

Nalgiev was not the only activist targeted by the authorities. In December 2021, a court in Yessentuki, Stavropol Krai convicted seven protest leaders — Ahmed Barakhoev, Musa Malsagov, Malsag Uzhakhov, Ismail Nalgiev, Bagaudin Khautiev, Barakh Chemurziev, and Zarifa Sautieva — of organising violence against law enforcement officers and creating an extremist community. They received sentences ranging from seven and a half to nine years in prison. None of the convicted activists admitted their guilt.

Since the beginning of this year, those sentenced in the ‘Ingush case’ have begun to be released.

Among those freed is Sautieva, the only woman convicted in the case and the deputy director of the Memorial Centre for the Victims of Repression. She was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, and was released on 28 January 2025 after serving her full term.

In 2022, while in pre-trial detention, Nalgiev and Sautieva married in a religious Islamic ceremony. In a few days, a wedding celebration will take place in Ingushetia.

Additionally, on 4 February 2025, Bagaudin Khautiev was released after serving his eight-year sentence, followed by Barakh Chemurziev, the head of the public movement Opora Ingushetii (Support of Ingushetia), on 18 February 2025.

https://oc-media.org/arrests-follow-ingush-referendum-law-protests/