Human rights website contributor kidnapped and tortured in Ingushetia

Reporters Without Borders deplores the abduction, beating and torture of activist Zurab Tsechoyev, a contributor to the human rights website Mashr, by members of the security services in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, in the North Caucasus, on 25 July. Masked men took him to an office used by the Federal Security Service (FSB), accused him of providing the news website Ingushetiya.ru with a list of FSB agents who allegedly participated in the kidnapping and killing of Ingush civilians, and threatened to kill him and his family if he did not agree to stop his human rights activities and leave the region by September. “We firmly condemn the methods used by the Ingush security forces to intimidate people trying to provide the public with information,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Human rights activists and website operators help to offset the lack of independent news in this very unstable region of the Caucasus. An investigation must be carried out into the torturing of Tsechoyev.” The masked men who kidnapped Tsechoyev from his home in Sunzhenski, a district of the Ingush capital of Magas, were identified by witnesses as members of the FSB. He was taken to an FSB building and tortured for several hours before being dumped on the outskirts of the city. He has been hospitalised with multiple fractures and contusions. Photos of Tsechoyev's injuries: http://www.ingushetiya.ru/news/14923.html http://www.memo.ru/2008/07/25/2507082.htm http://varfolomeev66.livejournal.com/222068.html