EU state may be violating rights

On 12 March, Finnish border guards detained in Nuijamaa, Finland, Timur and Lydia Dakhkilgovs, natives of Chechnya making their way to Kouvola by invitation of film director Andrey Nekrasov. They were searched and interrogated for seven hours, after which their visas were cancelled and they were deported from the country without any explanation. No charge was made against the couple, Mr Nekrasov says.

Timur and Lydia believe they were detained and deported because they are natives of Grozny as their passports indicate. Timur Dakhkilgov says the border guards in Finland treated them worse than FSB (Federal Security Service) officers did in 1999, they stripped them during the search, were rude to them and handled their luggage without due care.

The Dakhkilgovs and Mr Nekrasov are going to bring the case to a Finnish court with a demand that the detention and deportation of the Dakhkilgovs from Finland on 12 March 2004 should be declared illegal, Mr Nekrasov has told Caucasian Knot by phone today.

Andrey Nekrasov is the author of the Distrust documentary which is an investigation into the details of the 1999 explosions of apartment houses in Moscow leading to the invasion of Chechnya by federal troops. The film describes how Dakhkilgov was accused of blowing up the houses on Guryanova Street and Kashirskoye Highway; he spent three months in prison, where he says he was subjected to torture.