Power agents forced resident of Chechnya to confess of links with liquidated militant, rights defenders say

The resident of the Grozny District of Chechnya, a relative of the owner of the house, where militant Khamzat Shemilev was killed on August 21, was kidnapped by power agents and kept in custody for about 24 hours. They demanded him "to confess" that he was Shemilev's helper; otherwise they threatened to kill him and announce that he was a terrorist-suicide bomber. This was reported by the head of one of local human rights NGOs.

The human rights activist told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Adaev was first brought to the Zavodskoy ROVD (District Interior Division) of Grozny, and then - to ORB-2 (Operative-Search Bureau), where he was kept for almost day and night under pressure "to confess" that he was connected with militants.

"Moreover, when they failed to knock out of Adaev the evidences they needed by beatings and threats, they put a belt with explosive on him and said that they would kill him and present as a terrorist-suicide bomber. When they failed with this either, they decided to release the detainee," said the source.

"During those several days that elapsed after liquidation of Shemilev, in the Staropromyslovskiy District of Grozny militiamen detained two locals and accused them of being militant's helpers," the source has added.

The spokesman from the republic's law enforcement bodies refrained from any comments on the kidnapping and subsequent release of the above resident of Pervomaiskoe village, saying that no applications against illegal actions of law enforcers have arrived recently.