26 November 2007, 11:32
Journalists of "Ren-TV" kidnapped and beaten in Ingushetia return to Moscow
Journalists of the "24" news group of the "Ren-TV" Channel - Artyom Vysotskiy, Stanislav Goryachev and Karen Sakhinov, who had been detained in Nazran, have arrived to Moscow. Nothing threatens their lives any longer.
According to Mr Orlov himself, who was kidnapped from the hotel in Ingushetia together with the journalists, the aim of the kidnapping was not to let the TV crew film the mass protest rally in Nazran. This was the reason why the correspondents had been kept for so long, almost till the end of the rally, at the City Department of Internal Affairs, Oleg Orlov has noted.
According to Mr Orlov, as quoted by the "Gazeta.ru", at about midnight people in masks and camouflage, who presented themselves as employees of the antiterrorist centre, rushed into his hotel room. These people explained that the hotel had been mined, and it was related to the journalists. Then, the journalists and Orlov were told that they would be taken to militia.
All the four detainees were even not allowed to put on their clothes, black bags were put over their heads; and the victims were taken out of the city. The unknown agents had strongly beaten the journalists and threatened to kill them, clicks of machine gun bolts were heard. Mr Orlov said that they all were beaten with boots. The journalists were also deprived of their documents, communication facilities, notebooks and video equipment. Oleg Orlov had noticed that the kidnappers spoke Russian without any local accent.
