Detentions of disabled people continues in Chechnya

Abdul-Mutalib Seriyev, a resident of the village of Belgatoy, Chechnya's Shali district, addressed the Ingush office of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship on June 8 asking to help him find his son, Sarali Seriyev (b. 1980). Sarali was abducted by unknown gunmen on June 2. The abductors came to the Seriyev family's house in eleven Zhiguli cars. They wore masks and military uniforms without insignia. The abductors captured Sarali, forced him into one of the cars, and escaped in an unknown direction. Neighbors, who gathered having heard calls for help, witnessed the abduction along with Abdul-Mutalib Seriyev. Abducted Said Seriyev is a disabled man of the first group. He lost both arms in a landmine explosion while stacking hay last year.

The chairman of the Society's regional branch, Imran Ezhiev, has commented on the abduction of Seriyev: "People who became disabled as a result of landmine explosions in the Chechen republic, especially young men, make up a particularly vulnerable section of the population. They first suffer when they receive injuries and become disabled. And the second level of vulnerability is that representatives of security agencies think people who do not have an arm or a leg are former rebels and therefore have information about members of the resistance movement. Arrests, abductions, torture of disable people and sometimes their disappearances and extrajudicial executions are a widespread phenomenon in today's Chechnya."