According to his acquaintances, Makayev killed during a special operation in Chechnya was not a militant

One of the two young men killed on May 28 in the city of Shali by Chechen law-enforcement officers in the course of a special operation did not belong to any armed underground group, said his acquaintances in an interview with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On May 28, in the centre of Shali, when attempting to detain a suspected member of the armed group the officers of the Shali Region ROVD (Regional Department of the Interior) and the "R" Department of the Terek Special Task Police Detachment of the Main Board of the Ministry of Interior of Russia for Southern Federal Okrug killed Yusup Ashabov, a 29-year old citizen of Shali and Aslan Makaev, a 26-year old citizen of Grozny.

"I can say nothing about the second man killed in Shali, but it is evident that Aslan Makayev was not a militant," said one of the close acquaintance of the latter in his interview with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "Aslan worked on construction sites and in his free time earned some extra money using his old Zhiguli car as private taxi. He did not even have his own house, they lived in a temporary van that was previously provided to refugees. Now his mother and sisters have to hide as Aslan was declared a militant, and they are afraid of persecution by the power authorities."

He believes that Aslan Makaev simply became the victim of the circumstances. "In all probability, the killed militant (Yusup Ashabov - note by the "Caucasian Knot") asked Aslan to give him a lift and he as any other taxi driver would do, agreed. And when the militiamen wanted to arrest the militant, he began to defend himself by shooting and the officers just shot indiscriminately at the car killing both the guilty and the innocent, and then declared them to be "shaitans"(the word used by the local law enforcement officers and the leadership to describe the militants - note by the "Caucasian Knot")," said the man interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.