23:00, 6 November 2009

Detained human rights activist Arbi Khachukaev set free in Chechnya

Arbi Khachukaev, head of the public organization named "Pravo" (Law), detained on November 5 in Moscow and convoyed to Chechnya, has been released from custody.

Local power agencies structures have categorically refuted the information that Arbi Khachukaev was detained on charges of complicity to separatists or in connection with the recent murder in the Grozny District of his younger brother, who was announced by power agents to be an active member of illegal armed formations. An official in the Chechen MIA told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that such statements "were far-fetched and had nothing to do with reality."

The source has added that Khachukaev, being the person engaged in human rights activities, should know the laws and understand his responsibility for refusal to appear at interrogations, but instead "he preferred to hide from the investigation, and when he was brought to interrogation by force, pushed up the panic, involving well-known Russian and foreign human rights activists."

Author: Dmitry Florin

Source: CK correspondent