Relatives of detained Psyzh villagers tell about their conflict with authorities

Close relatives of the detained residents of the village of Psyzh have suggested that the conflict with local authorities was the reason for the searches conducted in their homes. Villagers were arrested after a polemic with the Imam, said a sister of one of the detainees.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 25, dozens of Psyzh villagers in Karachay-Cherkessia gathered outside the building of the Centre for Combating Extremism (CCE) in Cherkessk and demanded to explain where their relatives were kept. Earlier, after searches in the village, at least nine people were detained. Their relatives assert that law enforcers had planted weapons on two of the detainees, and extremist literature – on the rest of them.

Detainees' relatives have suggested that searches in Psyzh, where Abazins live compactly, could have passed after a polemic of local residents with an Imam.

Law enforcers have not yet explained the reason for the detentions, but promised to release most of them on June 30, said Inna Musaeva, a niece of Rustam Shkhagoshev, one of the detainees.

According to another source, the detainees were not radicals.

Local residents are afraid of speaking out in defence of the detainees out of fear that they themselves may become figurants in criminal cases.

Meanwhile, Akhmet Yarlykapov, a Caucasian scholar, has noted that there have never been serious problems with extremism in the Abazinsky District, but a peculiar religious situation has developed in the Muslim community of Karachay-Cherkessia.