Astrakhan residents ask Presidents of Russia and Dagestan to help releasing their children

Residents of Astrakhan - natives of Dagestan Elmira Gadmimuratova, Zalimkhan Ahmedov, Musaldibir Magomedov, Gentar Gazichaev, Sekhran Dzhalilov, Aslavdin Shikhaliev and Ibragim Ibragimov - have addressed Presidents of Russia and Dagestan Dmitri Medvedev and Magomedsalam Magomedov with a letter asking to help in releasing their children kept at the temporary custody facility (known as "IVS") of Astrakhan since June 30, 2009.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Ibragim Ibragimov and detainees' advocates Dzhamal Dzhamalov and Khanmagomed Murtazaliev.

Mr Dzhamalov has reminded that brothers Shamil and Magomed Magomedov, minors Ahmed Gazichaev, Shamil Magomedov, Sarkhan Dzhalizade and Gusein Shikhaliev were arrested on the basis of application of Gyulnara Alieva, who came at midnight to the on duty unit of the Kirov ROVD (District Interior Division) of the of city and said that she was raped by 13 natives of the Caucasus.

"She reported that she was strongly beaten; her clothes were torn; and she was raped," said Dzhamalov. "But the point is that Alieva is a deaf-mute; she could not evidence just physically, while the procedural documents have no mention that interrogation was held with the help of a sign language interpreter. Besides, she is registered by the psychiatric dispensary," said the lawyer.

He also noted that the expert revealed no traces of physical influence on Alieva; her clothes were in safety, and analyses also showed that nobody raped her. "In spite of all that, already on July 1 Sergey Bobrov, head of Investigatory Department for the Astrakhan Region of the Investigatory committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of Russia, said at a press conference for journalists of local mass media that Alieva was raped by 17 Dagestanians," lawyer Murtazaliev continued the story.

"On July 3, the website of the Investigatory Department placed information about the incident, where the number of detainees went down to 10 and where it was specified that "the victim received brain concussion and numerous traumas, including organ breaks." Today this information is no longer in the website," Mr Murtazaliev said.

Ibragim Ibragimov told about misadventures of his son Shamil Ibragimov. "He is considered to be the organizer of the crime: allegedly, everything was done under direction of my son and in his car. But on June 29 the members of our family and our relatives and friends for the whole day marked the birthday of our nephew in the country, in the vicinity of Astrakhan. Traditionally, we made photo and video filming, where everyone can easily see Shamil among others," said Ibragimov. "It is an iron alibi, which cannot be challenged."

"Understanding their mistake, inspectors made changes in remedial documents right eight months later. Now, they state that my son together with Ahmedov raped Alieva on June 21. In February 2010 she suddenly recollected that Ahmedov robbed her by 1000 roubles and from 'unidentified telephone' threatened her with SMS-messages saying that he would kill her," the father continued.

Ibragim Ibragimov asserts that the employees of the Investigatory Department have driven themselves into such situation, from where they cannot and do not want nobly exit: "Bobrov officially announced on TV another success of his structure. Now he and his subordinates try by all means to imprison innocent people. These people are wrongly understanding the notion of 'esprit de corps'."

In his opinion, an essential role in heating up the situation belongs to the antipathy revealed by Bobrov and other inspectors to Dagestan nationals. As a proof he showed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent a fragment from Bobrov's performance on the Astrakhan TV, where he said: "Dagestanians have no education; they have descended from mountains, saw a girl and raped her."

"All the detainees have lived in Astrakhan for long; certainly, they are registered here," explained Omar Ibragimov, representative of Dagestan in the Astrakhan Region. "They have education. <…> It's a sort of nightmare. Once Bobrov invited us, and for 40 minutes kept urging us without a stop that all the Dagestanians are gunmen and criminals."

The position of the head of the Investigatory Department of the Astrakhan Region Sergey Bobrov on the topic remains unknown.

Meanwhile, the advocates complain that they are not given a chance to get acquainted with the documents. "We've repeatedly addressed the courts, but they wouldn't listen to our reasons," they said.

Ibragim Ibragimov said that they hope for the help of the leaders of Dagestan and Russia.

The attempts of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent to receive any information about the incident at the Investigatory Department for the Astrakhan Region of the ICPO failed: all the officials refused from comments.