Relatives of Ingush residents kidnapped in St Petersburg hope for help of ECtHR

Since early April this year, the case about kidnapping on December 27, 2009, in St Petersburg of four relatives of Maksharip Aushev, assassinated Ingush human rights activist, is in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). In the meantime, the relatives of the kidnapped persons are still in the dark about their fate.

Let us remind you that relatives of Fatima Dzhanieva - Maksharip Aushev's widow - disappeared in St Petersburg at night on December 28, 2009.

Tanzila, the wife of Yunus Dobriev, one of the missing persons, told about the course of the investigation: "The inquiry failed to request the video records from the monitoring cameras located along the route of my husband's car. We did it ourselves. Having seen in the records that the car had passed several crossroads but never appeared at the next one, we defined the area where the kidnapping had taken place. We stuck appeals in the streets and walls of houses asking eyewitnesses to call back. A man called me; and later employees of the "Memorial" and my husband's friend visited all the flats in the nearby houses and found three more witnesses. Neither the prosecutor's office nor militia did this work. Probably, their only job was to write papers. But when we found witnesses, they were interrogated, and their evidences were added to the case files," Tanzila said.

However, as she asserts, these evidences made it possible to justify application to the ECtHR, as it was indirectly proved that special services had taken part in the kidnapping.

She also asserts that several days in a row, after disappearance of the victims, she and her relatives were shadowed by unknown persons. Ms Dobrieva believes that these were special agents.

According to her story, the shadowing was open and even demonstrative. "Probably, it has been made to intimidate us or put pressure," Tanzila said.

The woman believes that after kidnapping of their four relatives at a time, there were also grounds to be afraid for the fate of Fatima who was in hospital: "Other relatives came to her and quickly discharged her from the hospital. Someone was looking for her there, and they didn't want to take the risk."

Dobrieva herself fears for herself and other relatives. "The situation around us is very nervous and unclear. If al least we could know what the charges against our disappeared men are! If someone could tell us! Our relatives living in Ingushetia apply wherever they could; they addressed Evkurov, he promised to supervise the case and help - and nothing more," she said.

Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, an employee of the programme "Hot Spots" of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial", has reminded that the relatives of the missing people addressed the "Memorial" in the middle of January.

"In the beginning, it was hard to work, as there were no witnesses and facts. We were surprised that when the wife and sister of one of the kidnapped persons were invited to the 'E' Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, instead of clearing the circumstances that preceded the kidnapping, they were asked about the occupation of the kidnapped persons and about the terror act on December 17 in Ingushetia; as, under the official version, Batyr Dzhaniev - brother of one of the missing persons - was involved in it," Ms Sokiryanskaya said.

"Having seen the inactivity of inspectors, we began, together with the relatives, looking for witnesses. It may seem quite difficult in the huge St Petersburg. However, after we received the monitoring records and found Dobriev's car, we could define the place of kidnapping. Nothing was taken away from the car, it stood closed. Its front part had a dent, typical for collision with another car," the employee of the "Memorial" said.

Then, the human rights defender made a tour, together with a friend of the kidnapped Yunus Dobriev, over the apartments of the houses, the windows of which look at the carriageway, where the people were captured: "Within two hours we managed to find four witnesses who told us in all detail how the detention had taken place. Three of these witnesses have already been interrogated by the investigation. Their evidences allow to clearly confirming direct participation of special services in the kidnapping. However, unfortunately, we don't have car numbers and descriptions of power agents. Some of them were in masks; and the witnesses could not remember their faces, because they saw the operation from the windows of their apartments in the dark time of the day."