Dagestan militiamen say that beaten lawyer Magomedova was first to attack them

The case of Sapiyat Magomedova, who was beaten in Khasavyurt, is considered by the investigatory division on especially important cases of the Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan, which refuses to give any comments on the course of inquiry. According to the head of the Khasavyurt OVD (Interior Division) Shamil Temigereev, lawyer Magomedova attacked militiamen herself.

"I can't tell you now, whether militiamen beat Magomedova or not; the inquiry is underway," said Nizami Radzhabov, senior assistant of the head for PR and contacts with media of the Investigatory Department for Dagestan of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation. The Russian MIA could give no details, as the "Novye Izvestia" newspaper writes today. "I have no information about the incident with the Dagestan lawyer," Oleg Elnikov, head of the press centre of the Russian MIA, said to the newspaper.

In the meantime, Shamil Temigereev, head of the Khasavyurt city OVD, keeps stating that human rights activists are lying; and there was no beating of Magomedova.

"Nobody touched Sapiyat Magomedova with a finger. She herself attacked the militiamen. Human rights activists are lying without scruple!" the paper quotes Mr Temigereev as saying.

He says that rights defenders refused to put Magomedova to state-run hospitals. "Then, they put her into a private clinic, where they are ready to keep an absolutely healthy person for money," the militia boss said.

Zaur Gaziev, head of the Dagestan branch of the HRC "Memorial", treated Temigereev's statements as absurd.

"Sapiyat stayed for a day at the Khasavyurt city hospital and three days at the republic's hospital in Makhachkala. Nobody drove her out of there. We decided ourselves to transfer her to a private clinic, because the care is better there," he explained. "We have an official doctor's conclusion that Sapiyat has brain concussion and finger fracture. I'm just surprised how he can lie so impudently!"

According to Mr Gaziev, Sapiyat Magomedova's health condition remains stably grave. "She has brain concussion, a broken finger and traces of suffocation on her neck. However, most of all I'm worried about her moral condition. She's very depressed; as a matter of fact, she's in shock," said the human rights activist.

He said that an inspector from the prosecutor's office came to Sapiyat and interrogated her.

"The OMON (special-purpose militia) fighters tore their clothes and underwent forensic-medical examination. It turns out that a tiny 40-kilos-of-weight woman beat four huge males," Zaur Gaziev expressed his surprise.

Boris Aguzov, President of the Bar of the Republic of Dagestan, supports Magomedova. He said in his comments on the incident that MIA employees had no right to apply force to the lawyer and that the reasons of this attack should be sought in Sapiyat's professional duties.

"She is a person of principle and never compromises with the militia, which is at a real war on her: she was threatened; and a criminal case was initiated against her," the press service of the Russian Federal Chamber of Lawyers (FCL) quotes Mr Aguzov as saying.

He has added that the Bar of Dagestan will do the utmost to defend the lawyer.

"We've already contacted Olga Rudenko - representative of the FCL in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD); we'll address the FCL and write complaints," said Mr Aguzov.