President of Dagestan treats statement of HRC "Memorial" about extrajudicial executions as provocation

President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev called a provocation the statement of the HRC "Memorial" that the republic has illegal prisons and practices extrajudicial executions.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this statement about the situation in Dagestan was made during the sitting on the problem of kidnappings. The HRC "Memorial" and the All-Russian Movement "For Human Rights" called President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev, Public Prosecutor of Russia Yuri Chaika and Director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov to do everything necessary to ensure safety of those, whom the anonymous grouping of "relatives of lost militiamen" in Dagestan had labelled as enemies and put on the "execution list".

"Nobody should object to constructive criticism of law enforcement bodies and any other authority," said President of Dagestan in reply to the statement of human rights activists. "But one shouldn't use such crimes for writing, as they do in the open letter of the HRC 'Memorial', about violence and torture, about illegal prisons and extrajudicial executions. It's a provocation."

"I agree that there are drawbacks in the work of law enforcement bodies; however, we'll not allow anyone to estimate the work in this way. No human rights NGO has reasonable grounds for that," Mr Aliev has added.

President of Dagestan, however, has instructed Ali Magomedov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, to ensure safety of those journalists, lawyers and human rights activists, included into the so-called "execution list ", compiled on behalf of "relatives of lost militiamen", the "Gazeta.Ru" reports.

"Each of them [figurants of the list] has enough foes," President of Dagestan said at the meeting in Makhachkala with the heads of law enforcement bodies. "Anyone can reckon with them. They can be attempted on by other people."

In the opinion of Mukhu Aliev, "the main aim of these leaflets is destabilization of the political situation in the republic," the RIA "Dagestan" writes.

According to Public Prosecutor of Dagestan Andrei Nazarov, the leaflets were sent to the Investigatory Committee for examination. "We'll hold searches towards establishment of the producers and distributors of these leaflets," the Public Prosecutor has promised.