The head of Russia's Committee Against Torture human rights group, Igor Kalyapin, was attacked on Wednesday in the center of Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, his colleague said on Twitter.
About 15 attackers “beat” Kalyagin and “threw eggs” at the entrance to the Grozny-City hotel, Dmitry Utukin, a lawyer for the human rights group, said in a Twitter post.
“Kalyapin was pelted with eggs, cake, flour and green paint,” Utukin said, adding that no “serious damage” was done to him.
Kalyapin said assailants “kicked” him several times, including in the stomach, but the blows were “not strong” and seemed to have left no significant injuries, the MediaZona news website reported Wednesday.
Kalyapin had been planning to meet with Chechen human rights activist Kheda Saratova at the hotel, MediaZona said.
But the hotel's director entered Kalyapin's room, accompanied by armed police officers, and told him to leave “for unflattering remarks about the head of the republic,” Kalyapin said, MediaZona reported.
Human rights activists and independent media have repeatedly accused the forces of Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov of severe human rights violations, including torture and kidnappings of his opponents.
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