Court arrests two men taken by Chechen law enforcers away from Rostov-on-Don

Adam Dotmerzaev and Musa Ashakhanov, residents of the Chechen village of Samashki, who, according to human rights defenders, had been detained and tortured by law enforcers in Rostov-on-Don, were arrested for two months on the charge of involvement in the ranks of militants, the Achkhoi-Martan District Court reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 4, Adam Dotmerzaev and Musa Ashakhanov, residents of the village of Samashki in the Achkhoi-Martan District of Chechnya, were detained in Rostov-on-Don. When relatives learned that the detainees had been transported to Achkhoi-Martan, they managed to hand over a parcel for them, but when they complained about the detention of their family members to the Prosecutor's Office, law enforcers denied that Adam Dotmerzaev and Musa Ashakhanov were being kept at their place, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reported on October 20. According to a source of the HRC "Memorial", Adam Dotmerzaev and Musa Ashakhanov are still being kept in Achkhoi-Martan and are being subjected to torture.

Adam Dotmerzaev and Musa Ashakhanov, residents of the village of Samashki, are accused of participating in an illegal armed formation (IAF), and on October 23, they were taken into custody for two months by a decision of the Achkhoi-Martan District Court, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been informed today by an officer from the Achkhoi-Martan District Court.

Cases when people are detained by Chechen law enforcers in other regions are not rare, Oleg Orlov, a member of the council of the HRC "Memorial", has told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "The most striking example is a case of Salman Tepsurkaev. People came to the Krasnodar Territory, kidnapped the man, and took him away with them. Everything was done under surveillance cameras. It is known who were involved in the kidnapping: their faces were visible and their positions were known," Oleg Orlov noted.

Igor Kalyapin, the head of the "Committee against Torture" (CaT), suggests, that law enforcers intend to use torture to force the two detainees to confess that they were going to leave to fight in Syria. "The purpose of the torture is to get a confession that the detained men were going to fight in Syria. The law enforcers try to charge the detainees with the participation in a terrorist organization," Igor Kalyapin said.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 26, 2020 at 12:56 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.