The Committee Against Torture has been qualified as the affected party in the criminal case on arson of Joint Mobile Group office of human rights defenders working in the Chechen Republic. This was reported by Deputy Head of the First Department of the Major Cases Directorate of the Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Northern Caucasus Federal District Colonel of Justice Kalinin, who accepted this case for legal proceedings.
In the corresponding statement Mr Kalinin, in particular, informs: «In the course of preliminary investigation it has been established that on 13.12.2014 about 21 p.m. unidentified persons broke into the three-room apartment No.18 at No.19 Rosa Luxemburg Street in Grozny, in which, according to the leasing contract dated 01.01.2014, the office of the Committee Against Torture Joint Mobile Group was located. They broke the furniture, damaged the walls, sanitary conveniences, made the office equipment inoperable and destroyed some personal belongings of the employees; after that they set out sheets of paper in three rooms, ignited them and vanished. As a result of the fire that followed the property belonged to INGO «The Committee Against Torture» was damaged and destroyed, totally it amounted to more than 260,512. 07 rubles».
In addition, as it has become known from the letter of Deputy General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation Mr Sydoruk addressed to the Counselor of the President of the Russian Federation, M.A.Fedotov, the district department of the Investigative Committee of Russia is conducting an additional check based on the application of JMG lawyers on unlawful actions of the Chechen policemen who apprehended the human rights defenders the next day after the arson and seized all the equipment that they had.
As of today all the property which was unlawfully seized by the policeman has been returned to the Committee Against Torture representatives. However, we would like to note that video records on the data event recorder disappeared.
One can familiarize himself with the chronology of the events happened to Joint Mobile Group lawyers in December 2014 in the blog of Igor Kalyapin on the web site of the Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation.