Relatives of kidnapped resident of Ingushetia turn for help to rights defenders

On September 7, in Ekazhevo village, Nazran District of Ingushetia, agents of some unidentified power agency kidnapped Rustam Maksharipovich Dzeitov, born in 1982. This was stated by his brother Ruslan Dzeitov, who has addressed today his written application to the representative office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Nazran.

On that day, about 60 power agents arrived in the Dzeitovs' house at No. 11 Balaev Street at about 4 in the morning, said Ruslan Dzeitov. They were dressed in camouflage uniforms, and all of them, except two, were in masks; they spoke Russian. Without presenting themselves and without showing any documents, the armed men answered the question of the hosts about who they were: "KGB."

They asked for Rustam Dzeitov, and when he named himself, they put him down on the floor. Then, they made a superficial inspection of the house and the yard. Rustam Dzeitov was put into an armoured Gazel van without license number plates and taken away in some unknown location. Also, they confiscated Rustam Dzeitov's documents and documents on his VAZ-21099 car, runs the statement of the HRC "Memorial" that has arrived to the "Caucasian Knot" office.

The relatives tried unsuccessfully to find Rustam's whereabouts. They appealed to all law enforcement agencies of the republic, the local Security Council and personally to President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov. The President asked B. Atigov, Acting Secretary of the Security Council, to look into this matter. The latter assured the Dzeitovs that everything was OK with Rustam and that he lives in a hotel. However, Atigov refused, in the interests of the investigation, to point the location of the hotel and specify the reason of Rustam's detention.

As of September 27, relatives of Rustam Dzeitov know nothing about his fate and assert that Rustam had done nothing wrong. They suppose that, while working as a taxi driver, Rustam could have possibly given a lift to some people searched by law enforcers; therefore, the relatives asked rights defenders to help.