In Grozny the abducted young man was released after being tortured, a human rights activist informs

Resident of Staropromyslovsky district of the capital city of Chechnya, abducted by unidentified security forces members on the morning of 13 May was released the same evening. For hours, the young man was severely beaten and tortured. The MIA in Grozny refused to comment on this information.

We remind you that according to the head of a local NGO, who preferred to remain anonymous, the young man was abducted by gunmen in the town of Mayakovsky of Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny at around 11 am on May 13 at the exit of the school No.10 area.

"On May 13 in the town of Mayakovsky in Grozny, unidentified members of security forces, menacing a youth with guns, seized and took him to an undisclosed location in an auto VAZ-2114." This happened in the full view of many people, among them school children, considering that the abduction was performed just at the exit of the school yard.

Later, the young man relatives, for obvious reasons I will not give their names, said that evening he was sent home. He was severely beaten and exposed to electric shock though", a human rights activist told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In his words, senior brothers of this young man are serving sentence for involvement in the armed insurgent groups.

Himself, the young man had been earlier abducted by the law enforcement officers and was staying over some months under hatches where he allegedly was exposed to tortures and abuses. "His body still bears scars from tortures with electric shock. This is the favorite method of our securities forces for knocking out evidences from detainees", a human rights activists asserted.

In the militia department of Grozny they declined to give comments to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on information about the young man's detention and advised to contact the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen republic. In turn, the press service of Russia's MIA in Chechnya demanded an official inquiry, explaining that they feared for the accuracy of representation of their statements. The press service of the Investigation Department of the investigative committee of the Prosecutor General's office of the Russian Federation in Chechnya, in turn, said, "We have no such information," and hung up.

According to the head of the human rights organization, it is rather common practice for the power bodies in Chechnya to persecute relatives of active or former armed insurgents.

"The main goal, in my opinion, is to keep people in constant fear, in depressed state. None of the relatives of armed insurgents, who were detained and tortured, would seek help from law enforcement bodies, because everyone knows this will have no effect." Moreover, the authorities of the Republic repeatedly said that relatives of the armed insurgents should be liable for their actions", a source told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He notes that this could be hardly regarded as the local executives' initiative. "I do not think the militia chiefs and even the leadership of the republic are not aware of what is going on in the militia or securities departments, all of them being guided by 'final results'", the human rights activist believes.