Chechnya will try head of village administration

The head of the administration of one of the villages of the foothill Kurchaloy District of Chechnya is accused of illegal reception by his relative of a large sum of money for building a house.

"In the course of a check, the Prosecutor's Office of the Kurchaloy District has revealed a fact of using official powers by the head of the administration of Kurchaloy village for illegal actions," a source from the republic's law enforcement bodies told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The inquiry has established that in 2008 the head of the administration, acting together with four members of the commission for checking construction of houses for young families - applicants for subsidies within the programme of providing housing facilities to young families, drew up an act about partial completion of an individual house by one of his close relatives. It allowed the latter to illegally get a bank loan of 300,000 roubles.

According to his story, the official is under threat of up to four years of imprisonment.

In the opinion of a local human rights defender, the fact that bureaucrats of different levels in Chechnya use their official powers for extracting own benefits and rendering assistance to their relatives and friends is no secret.