Dagestan MIA refutes death of human rights activist in Makhachkala

The information that human rights activist Mustapa Abdurakhmanov was found shot dead in Makhachkala is incorrect, reports the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan. According to the Ministry, Abdurakhmanov was liquidated on October 28 during a combat engagement in the Sergokalin District; he was a supporter of Wahhabism.

The Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs further reports that he was killed on October 28 in the course of operative and search actions conducted by militia of Dagestan and MIA's internal troops near Kadyrkent village, Sergokalin District, where power agents liquidated three armed men. One of the casualties - Mustapa Abdurakhmanov, 37, - "is presented as a human rights activist whose body was allegedly found in Makhachkala."

The Ministry adds that rumours about the murder of "human rights activist" Abdurakhmanov were disseminated by Ismail Butdaev, brother of Vadim Butdaev, one of militants' leaders, and of Gyulnara Rustamova (Butdaeva), leader of the NGO "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 30 Mustapa Abdurakhmanov, member of the human rights organization "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights", was allegedly found dead in Makhachkala.

"Mustapa Abdurakhmanov, born in 1966, disappeared yesterday in the afternoon. He went to pick up his daughters from the medrese (religious school), but didn't get there and disappeared. Today, on October 30, it has become known that his body is in the morgue. We'll be able to see his body only tomorrow, but a morgue employee told us that he (Abdurakhmanov) was killed," Ismail Butdaev told the RIA "Novosti" Agency.