Ingush blogger Ismail Nalgiev faces expulsion from Belarus without trial

The authorities have ordered the extra-judicial deportation of Russian critical blogger Ismail Nalgiev after his arrest in the Minsk airport on May 8, the Belarusian Association of Journalists said quoting Nalgiev’s lawyer.

The lawyer also says law enforcement agencies are not disclosing the reasons for the blogger’s arrest, who has been held in the detention center in Minsk. The lawyer is trying to appeal the expulsion.

The Ingush opposition blogger and journalist Ismail Nalgiev was arrested at the airport on May 8 when leaving the country. He was told that he was on the Russian list of wanted persons.

After numerous attempts to meet with the blogger, his lawyer managed to see Nalgiev in the evening of May 8. Then the blogger said that he had been charged with an administrative offense.

It was expected that the charge would be considered on May 10 by the Court of the Kastryčnicki district of Minsk, but in the morning the detainee’s lawyer said that there would be no trial and the expulsion had already been enforced.

Ismail Nalgiev is one of the leaders of protests in Ingushetia. He has repeatedly faced political persecution.