Svetlana Gannushkina has been charged over a letter in defense of an Ingush native accused of terrorism
The Moscow prosecutor's office has opened an administrative case against human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina. The document states that she failed to indicate her "foreign agency" in her correspondence with Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova.
Gannushkina forwarded reference information from the Memorial Center to Moskalkova's personal email address about the case of 23-year-old Ingush resident Leyla Gatagazheva. She asked that attention be paid to the case of the young mother, who was accused of participating in a terrorist organization. The Memorial Human Rights Center believes that the prosecutor's office acted "in retaliation" for Gannushkina's publicity about Gatagazheva's persecution.
Let us recall that the 21-year-old mother of two is accused of aiding ISIS (a banned terrorist organization) in Syria. However, she has already been punished, serving five years in prison in Iraq. After that, she was handed over to the Russian authorities. The criminal case is based on the testimony of a single secret witness. The defense cannot review the materials while the investigation is ongoing.
Since her extradition to Russia in June 2023, that is, almost nine months, Leyla Gatagazheva has been in a pretrial detention center. During this time, her health has seriously deteriorated - there is a suspicion of tuberculosis.
