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Human Rights Commissioner on the abduction of Amnesty International researcher Oleg Kozlovsky
Bärbel Kofler, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office, issued the following statement today (18 October):
I am deeply concerned about what Oleg Kozlovsky, a staff member of Amnesty International has reported on his abduction in Ingushetia and his mock execution. I call on the Russian authorities to investigate this intimidation of a human rights defender and – should this investigation corroborate Oleg Kozlovsky’s story – strongly condemn it. The perpetrators must then be identified and called to account before a court of law. It is high time that the Russian Government demonstrated that it supports compliance with human rights.
Background information:
According to an Amnesty International report, on the night of 6 October Oleg Kozlovsky was lured into a car, abducted and maltreated, while his family was threatened.
Ingushetia is a Russian constituent republic in the Northern Caucasus with around 488,000 inhabitants. It was established after the former Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was divided in 1991. Since then, there have been unresolved border issues between the successor republics Chechnya and Ingushetia. A recently concluded agreement on settling the problem provoked protests. Kozlovsky stated that he was in Ingushetia to observe these demonstrations.