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A
Family Member of Applicant to European Court for Human Rights,
Mekhti
Mukhaev,
Has
been Illegally Detained and Subjected to Severe Torture
Persecution of Residents of Zumsoj village continues
European
Parliament resolution on Chechnya after the elections and civil society
in Russia adopted on January 20 20006 expressed deep concern with the
failure of the European institutions to address “the ongoing serious
human rights violations in the Chechen Republic despite the fact that
those violations are still occurring on a large scale on both sides” and
stressed that special emphasis must be placed on investigations into
crimes against human rights activists, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and
applicants to the European Court of Human Rights and their family
members”.
At night of December 29/30 2005 was
illegally detained and a family member of applicant to European Court
for Human Rights Mekhti Mukhaev. Until today he is being
subjected to torture aimed at fabrication of a criminal case.
“Memorial”
calls on international organizations to closely follow this situation
and ensure that the investigation of Mukhaev’s case is carried out
within the framework of the Russian and international law.
Below are the circumstances of this case.
Throughout 2005 “Memorial” was closely following the developments in the
high mountainous village of Zumsoj, Itum-Kalinsky district of Chechnya.
On
January 14 and 16
the village and its surroundings were subjected to rocket bombing, then
the military paratroopers landed from helicopters, looted the houses and
detained 4 local residents:
Nasipov Shirvani
(born in 1956),
Ibishev Magomed-Emin
(born in 1965),
Mukhaev Vakha
(born in 1955) and his 16 year old son
Atabi Mukhaev.
The detained were put on helicopters and taken away in an unknown
direction; in the evening the military servicemen promised to bring them
back. As of January 23 2006 the whereabouts of the kidnapped remain
unknown. The relatives of the kidnapped repeatedly turned and wrote to
prosecution asking to instigate a criminal case into the kidnapping,
however, they never got any answer. In response to inquiry by the Chair
of HRC “Memorial” Oleg Orlov, the Military Prosecution of the Russian
Federation denied the fact that Russian military servicemen carried out
special operations in the village of Zumsoi and informed by the way that
all of the kidnapped persons, including the boy Atabi Mukhaev, were
active supporters of illegal band formations and presently “might be
located in the band of D. Umarov and T. Gaziev and hiding from
persecution by the federal authorities”.
The response of
the Head of VOGO and P
V. Koshelev was even more categorical: it states that his units did not
plan or carry out any special operations on the territory of
Itum-Kalinsky district in the period of 14.01.05 and 17.01.05.
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