Witness in Nalchik attack case opens details on how defendants are convoyed

Today, at the court session, where the attack on law enforcement bodies of Nalchik on October 13, 2005, evidences of Mohammed Mirzoev, a lawyer of the Bar of Kabardino-Balkaria, were heard. At the moment of the events, he worked as an operative agent of criminal investigation at the 1st OVD of Nalchik and was engaged in delivering defendants from the investigatory insulator to the UBOP (division for fighting organized crime) for interrogations.

At the session Mirzoev was asked to tell how defendants were convoyed. It follows from his evidences that defendants were brought to the UBOP in a UAZ minivan, known as "tablet", where in a narrow space up to ten persons were squeezed. They sat on the floor with their handcuffed hands behind their back. When getting out defendants sometimes fell down, as the legs grew numb during the travel.

Then, every defendant was convoyed by two guards in the pose, which was described by the witness as follows: "the head at the distance of 20 centimetres from the ground, with hands lifted up on the back."

To the question, whether he knew about ambulance calls to defendants during interrogations at the UBOP of the MIA of the KBR (Kabardino-Balkarian Republic), the witness said that probably such facts had taken place, but he did not remember about them.

The witness also explained that in the UBOP building defendants were kept standing with their faces to the wall, or squatted "to have a rest." They were in the handcuffs with hands behind the back. Sometimes, they waited for hours to get interrogated.

Mirzoev also told that he did not see traces of beating in defendants' faces; however, there could be scratches or grazes. He added that he personally "never admitted application of violence to defendants or suspects."

It is notable that some of the defendants, in particular, Azret Shavaev, expressed gratitude to the witness with the formulation "you know what for." And two defendants said that the witness applied physical violence to them during transportation. "This person was beating me personally," said defendant Aslan Berov.