KChR residents complain about delaying torture case at "E" Centre

The investigation into the torture of Guzer Khashukaev by employees of the "E" Centre has not advanced at all since September, his relatives have stated to the head of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in late August, Guzer Khashukaev, a 38-year-old resident of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR), stated that he was tortured. The man reported that employees of the Centre for Combating Extremism of the Chief Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) (known as the "E" Centre) tortured him after his refusal to cooperate with law enforcers. A high-ranking employee of the "E" Centre was suspected of torturing him; he escaped and in September was put on the wanted list.

Relatives of Guzer Khashukaev asked Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the ICRF, to take the investigation into Guzer's torture case under his personal control. Since the suspect was put on the federal wanted list, no investigation has been conducted, the "Kommersant" reported on November 6 about the relatives' appeal to the ICRF, which was sent there on the same day.

Guzer Khashukaev himself has complained that no identification was conducted, and investigators took no testimony from him. "We are tired of knocking on all the doors; none of perpetrators has been punished yet. In broad daylight, my son was illegally detained, tortured, and no one has yet been held accountable," the "Kommersant" quotes Zhanna Khashukaeva, Guzer's mother, as saying.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 7, 2018 at 10:53 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.