Arrested by the FSB on 12 July, Maysigov says he was tortured in custody and forced into confessing to illegal drug possession.
This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 22 July 2019.
Authorities in the Republic of Ingushetia must release journalist Rashid Maysigov unconditionally and investigate allegations that he was tortured in custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
On July 12, in Nazran, a town in the Republic of Ingushetia, a republic within the Russian Federation, agents from the local division of the Federal Security Service (FSB) detained Maysigov, a reporter for investigative news website Fortanga who also administers the outlet’s channel on Telegram, according to his lawyer, Magomed Aushev, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and local news reports
Agents detained Maysigov after raiding his home, where they allegedly found drugs and printed materials calling for the unification of Ingushetia with the neighboring Republic of Georgia, according to those reports. Maysigov told his lawyer that FSB agents took him into custody and interrogated him about his journalism, electrocuted him during questioning, and forced him to confess to possessing drugs, Aushev told CPJ.On July 16, a Magassky district court formally placed Maysigov under arrest and ordered him to remain in pre-trial detention in jail for two months pending an investigation into alleged illegal drug possession, his lawyer told CPJ. Continue
