Nazran/Agency
Caucasus
– Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, put the reason behind the Saturday kidnapping of him along with three other journalists in Ingushetia as prevention of the broadcasting of a public demonstration in Nazran against the government.
Orlov said that the three Ren-TV workers–Artem Visotski, Stanislav Goryachev, Karen Sahinov–and he were now allowed to leave the police station until the demonstration was over. Orlov and the three other journalists took shelter in a police station after they were let go somewhere up in the mountain.
Mariyanna Maksimovskaya, a worker of Ren-TV, also said that the journalists were kidnapped not to broadcast the demonstration against the government of Ingushetia.
The following is a brief description from Orlow of how the kidnapping happened:
The security workers of the Assa Hotel suddenly disappeared at midnight. It was later learnt that they had been ordered not to be seen around. Then a group of masked men made their way up to the rooms of the supposedly highly-secure hotel. They resembled workers of the anti-terror center. The masked men said that there was a bomb planted somewhere at the hotel and added that the journalists would be taken to the police station because the masked men suspected that the bomb was somehow related to the journalists. The masked men put a bag around the heads of all four journalists, not caring at all to wait for the journalists to get dressed up. The journalists were taken in a white car somewhere. The car stopped one hour later somewhere in the mountain. The masked men beat the journalists and threatened them with death.
Although the journalists were seriously injured, Orlov was not. The masked men sized all personal things of the journalists. They were speaking in Russian; however, they were not speaking in local accent.
Orlov did not appear hopeful that the criminals would be brought to justice. Yekaterina Sokiryanskaya, Memorial’s representative in Nazran, said that there was not any doubt that the masked men were from the government’s security forces.
KU/ÖZ/FT
