The Russian authorities should take urgent steps to protect human rights defenders working in Chechnya from attacks and harassment, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Front Line Defenders said today. Unidentified people in masks forced their way into the office of the human rights nongovernmental organization Joint Mobile Group (JMG) for Chechnya, in Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, on June 3, 2015, destroying its contents and forcing its staff to evacuate. The authorities should immediately conduct an effective investigation of the incident, capable of identifying those responsible and bringing them to account in a fair trial.
