Detainees released from five months' custody

The information centre for the president of the unrecognised Chechen Republic of Ichkeria learned on 31 May that the eight relatives of the killed Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov had been released after five months' custody in Tsentoroi, Chechnya.

Chechnya's prosecutor's office confirmed to Interfax earlier today the information about the return of all of Aslan Maskhadov's relatives except his nephew convicted of participation in illegal armed groups.

The Human Rights Centre Memorial reports those released say all that time they were kept together in a concrete cell sized 3x3 m without furniture. There was a small barred window above. No charges were brought against them, no one interrogated them and they only were let out to go to the toilet. The food was good enough. The abducted persons noticed their confinement was located on quite large premises enclosed with a fence. There were many armed people who mostly spoke Chechen.

A person in civilian clothes entered their cell on 30 May 2005 and announced their release. On this day, they were allowed to take a shower, for the first time in five months.

The next day, the abducted people, blindfolded, were brought to their homes.

The Russian party had previously claimed Chechnya's law enforcement agencies had nothing to do with the seizure of Aslan Maskhadov's relatives.

However, according to separatists, in January 2005 it was suggested that Maskhadov should lay down arms and give himself up to Russian authorities. In February 2005, Russian structures allegedly requested ransom, but were refused.

Himself, when answering Kommersant newspaper's question about the abduction of his relatives, Maskhadov said, "Many Chechen citizens are abducted and killed for more than five years already. I don't think therefore that my family feelings should prevail over the call of duty with respect to my people."

According to the Human Rights Centre Memorial's information, the eight relatives of Aslan Maskhadov were abducted in December 2004 by officers of local law enforcement and security agencies controlled by Chechnya's Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov whom President Vladimir Putin of Russia later decorated with a Hero of Russia star for "courage and heroism."

Memorial officers talked to a number of witnesses of those abductions and developed an account of the events in December.

1. At about 9.00 pm on 3 December 2004, Aslan Maskhadov's sister, Buchu Aliyevna Abdulkadyrov, b. 1937, was brought away by "Kadyrovtsy" (officers of local law enforcement and security agencies controlled by Ramzan Kadyrov) from her own home at 62 Turbinnaya St, Krasnaya Turbina, Staropromyslovskii district, Grozny.

2. On the same evening at about 8.15 pm, Kadyrovtsy abducted Maskhadov's brother, Lecha Aliyevich Maskhadov, b. 1936, resident in Mostovaya St, Podgornyi, Staropromyslovskii district, Grozny. His wife, Kasadi Maskhadov, says the people who broke in demanded that they should give up their son, Solman. They failed to find him though and went away, taking Lecha Maskhadov with them.

3. At the same time Adam Abdul-Karimovich Rashiyev was abducted, a disabled distant relative of the Maskhadovs, b. 1950. He was detained at home at 26 Sovkhoznaya St, Podgornyi, Staropromyslovskii district, Grozny. His relatives say he was detained by Kadyrovtsy.

4. At about 8.00 am on the same day, Kadyrovtsy abducted Aslan Maskhadov's brother, Lema Aliyevich Maskhadov, 55. He was brought away from his home at 125, Sovetskaya St, Pervomaiskaya. Kadyrovtsy also conducted an unauthorised search in his house. His wife was knocked over with a blow when she tried to prevent them from taking her husband.

5. At about the same time, Kadyrovtsy abducted Ikhvan Vakhayevich Magomedov, 35, Maskhadov's nephew (the son of one of Aslan Maskhadov's sisters). He was brought away from his house at 87, Sovetskaya, Pervomaiskaya, Grozny village district. The abductors did not try to conceal that they belonged to local law enforcement and security agencies and that they were fulfilling the order of Ramzan Kadyrov.

6-8. At night on 28 December 2004, Kadyrovtsy abducted Aslan Maskhadov's niece Khadizhat Vakhayevna Satuyev, b. 1964, the daughter of Buchu Abdulkadyrov abducted on 3 December.

On the same night, her husband, Usman Ramzanovich Satuyev, 47, was brought away from his flat in Novaya, Staropromyslovskii district, Grozny. His brother-in-law (the husband of his wife's sister), Movladi, 35, resident in Avtotrest, Staropromyslovskii district, Grozny, was brought away, too.

• Maskhadov may have been trapped 'internationally'
• Authorised abuse

More about abductions in Chechnya:

• From the conflict zone