Human Rights Center “Memorial” has reported that armed and unknown men broke into the Human Rights Center in Grozny and threatened the staff of the organization.

According to the press release, on May 30, at about 4:00pm, several people, two of them in civilian clothes and the others in black uniforms, raided the office of the Human Rights Center of the Chechen Republic. They didn’t introduce themselves and didn’t explain the purpose of the operation. One man in civilian clothes, who was in his 50s, behaved most agressively. The staff of organization was threatened with “their work being smashed” and “all of them being expelled to hell”. They used foul language, insulted the women in the office, and nearly beat a young staff member who tried to get an explanation from the intruders.

The incident lasted about ten minutes. The office staff and visitors have been worried about what is going on. Minkail Ezhiev, head of the organization, tried to find out about the reasoning behind the incident, but the armed men ignored him and left without any explanation.

*Text was translated by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco