Kadyrov to sue human rights activists

Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov has announced he is going to sue human rights activists slandering him. The matter concerns materials about Ramzan Kadyrov and his subordinates' involvement in kidnappings in Chechnya. According to Kadyrov, such accusations are absolutely groundless, and he will bring a suit against human rights activists who accuse him of being involved in kidnappings. He issued the statement during a conference in Grozny devoted to the counteraction to Wahhabism and extremism.

Mr Kadyrov also denied the arrest of vice president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Vakha Arsanov. Ramzan Kadyrov holds the rumors that the Ichkerian vice resident is arrested and being held in the ancestral village of the Kadyrov family, Tsentoroi, in the Kurchaloi district of Chechnya are disseminated deliberately. "I announce officially these reports are false and don't represent the facts," said the first deputy prime minister.

Reports about Vakha Arsanov's detention appeared in the middle of January 2005. The Ichkerian side has confirmed them lately by spreading information that Arsanov together with his elder son is being held at a base of the security service in the village of Tsentoroi. Arsanov is claimed to be subjected to torture and beating and demanded that he should declare against Aslan Maskhadov and participate in the round table discussion on the resolution of the situation in Chechnya which is to take place in Moscow in March.