Ingush antiterror officers charged with battery and torture

An investigation has been launched against members of Ingushetia’s Centre for Combatting Extremism (CCE). The court heard that seven years ago, members of the CCE abducted a 27-year-old Ingush man and tried to obtain testimony from him through beatings and torture.

The names of the accused men have not yet been released to the public. Even after being tortured, the abducted man, did not incriminate himself, which saved him from falsified criminal charges and a prison sentence. After five days of torture, the emaciated man was left near the village of Nesterovskaya.

Members of the CCE are to be prosecuted for ‘violent action by an official which clearly goes beyond their powers and entails a significant violation of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens’.

The Centre for Combatting Extremism is notorious in Ingushetia for its violent methods. After the death of one of detainee charged with robbery against Russian bank Rosselkhozbank in July 2016, an investigation was launched. As a result of the case, the centre’s director, Timur Khamkhoyev, along with several other employees, were taken into custody. Ingush antiterrorist officers were also found guilty of a robbery against a citizen of Azerbaijan; they stole his car and demanded a ransom for it.