Khadizhat Dobrieva asks human rights defenders to find Aushev's relatives who disappeared in St Petersburg

Ms Dobrieva, a relative of assassinated oppositionist Maksharip Aushev, has addressed human rights activists for help in searching her brothers and nephews, who disappeared in St Petersburg. She has filed respective applications to the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Nazran (Ingushetia) and Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization "Mashr".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the above relatives of Fatima Dzhanieva - widow of the well-known Ingush public figure and leader of the opposition Maksharip Aushev - disappeared in St Petersburg at night on December 28. They are Yusup and Yunus Dobriev - Fatima's maternal uncles, and Khadizhat Dobrieva's nephews Ali Dzhaniev and Magomed Adzhiev. Khadizhat Dobrieva is Fatima's maternal aunt.

On December 26, Yusup Dobriev left Ingushetia, together with Fatima Dzhanieva, born in 1982, and his nephew Ali Dzhaniev, and - via Moscow - arrived in St Petersburg. As reported by the HRC "Memorial", Fatima planned to continue her treatment after a heavy injury there.

Let us remind you, that on December 27 Aushev's relatives arrived at St Petersburg by train. Fatima was left with her relatives living at 4 Kamskaya Street.

At night on December 28, at about 00:30 a.m., Yusup and Yunus Dobriev, Ali Dzhaniev and Magomed Adzhiev in their car model VAZ-21099 (registration number of M273OS 98th Region) left for their relatives. From there, they planned to go to the hostel located in the Primorskiy District of the city, close to the "Pionerskaya" metro station. However, they never appeared in any of these places; in about an hour after they left, their mobile phones ceased to answer.

Their relatives who live in St Petersburg submitted applications about their disappearance to several district militia departments. As of 6:00 p.m. on December 28, 2009, there was no information about their whereabouts.