PRESS STATEMENT
As Members of the European Parliament, we strongly deplore the arson attack on Ingushetia´s regional office of Memorial, which is one of Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organisations.
The headquarters of Memorial were set on fire on 17 January, 2018. It is believed that this has followed the arrest of human rights activist Oyub Titiev, the head of Memorial´s Chechen operations, who was arrested over trumped up charges for supposed narcotics offences a week before. We believe that this arson attack is politically motivated with a goal to intimidate anyone speaking up for human rights violations in the Russian Federation. We call for Mr Titiev´s urgent release and demand the Russian government to put an end to the human rights violations against its citizens.
Anna Fotyga and 25 other MEPs
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-memorial-ingushetia-office-torched-titiyev/28980146.html
