After brawl in Saratov, Public Chamber members stand up for Chechen youngsters

The criminal prosecution of five young guys from Chechnya for a brawl with law enforcers in Saratov needs to be checked by the Prosecutor's Office, Mansur Soltaev, a member of the Public Chamber of Russia, has stated. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), four policemen who tried to stop the brawl were beaten up. In its turn, the defence insists that the policemen were drunk and attacked the young guys themselves, the defence claims.

The Russian Prosecutor's Office and that of the Saratov Region should conduct a check of the arrest of the five natives of Chechnya who brawled in Saratov, said Mansur Soltaev, a member of the Russian Public Chamber and of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the head of Chechnya. "I am sure that this fact violated the rights of minors. I take this situation under my personal control," Mr Soltaev has emphasized.

According to his version, the brawl was provoked by drunken men in civilian clothes. "As it turned out later, they were law enforcers who were not at service; and, moreover, they were drunk," the "Grozny-Inform" has quoted Mansur Soltaev as saying on August 3.

Investigators, contrary to Soltaev, claim that all four law enforcers at the time of the incident – at about 1 a.m. on July 24 – were at their service.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 4, 2021 at 09:58 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.