Advocate of Ingush residents, accused of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train, is sure of their innocence

Aza Yandieva, advocate of the ten residents of the Ingush village of Ekazhevo, accused of blowing the "Neva-Express" trains in 2007 and 2009, arrived in Moscow to meet her clients. In her view, the new allegations against them are ungrounded.

Let us remind you that initially ten residents of the Ingush village of Ekazhevo, most of whom have the surname of Kartoev, were accused of undermining the "Neva-Express" train in 2009; however, in late September it became known that the investigation moved new charges against them - of blowing up the same train in 2007.

The advocate intends to meet her clients that, as she told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, to interrogate them, and then undertake the necessary remedial actions. Ms Yandieva suspects that at first the investigator, who is dealing with the case, will mend obstacles, "look for different reasons in order not to let me meet the Kartoevs, because the case is an example of complete lawlessness."

"I've been dealing with the case from the very start, and I visited the place of the events," said Aza Yandieva. - "It was a real 'massacre of Saint Bartholomew' for the Kartoev family: security agents rushed into them at dawn on March 2, 2010, shot dead four Kartoev brothers who went out to defend their house and their parents. They killed unarmed guys who had no conflicts with the law, the guys engaged in hard physical labour - they were builders. Three Kartoev brothers were arrested. Their house was plundered and then blow up. The attackers stole everything - they took away even baby diapers."

Aza Yandieva said that she had appealed to the Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia with a question, "Is there a law allowing agents to destroy houses of innocent civilians?" "I was told: a prosecutor's check is needed on this fact. However, such phenomena are widespread in Ingushetia, and nobody checks them," she said.

Father of three arrested brothers - Umatgirey Kartoev - came with her. He is confident that his sons are innocent and believes that they are forced to confess of the crimes they had never committed under torture. "And my dead sons are accused of all unsolved crimes, including murders - because the dead cannot object. It's obvious that they had been killed with the purpose," Mr Kartoev-elder said.

According to his story, the bodies of his four sons murdered on March 2, are not given out for funeral. "I wrote an application to the Public Prosecutor of Ingushetia asking to get the bodies, but received no reply. I repeatedly met President Yunus-Bek Evkurov, wrote to various instances, including the Russia's Prosecutor's Office and Investigatory Committee, but no result. I am a helpless old man with heart disease, and my wife suffers, after those events (the special operation on March 2) from breathlessness attacks, she can hardly walk. Before our death, we'd like to bury the dead and see those surviving sons," said the old man.

In their comments on the new charges against the figurants in the "Neva-Express" explosions, Aza Yandieva and Umatgirey Kartoev called them "complete nonsense".

Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the Ingush human rights organization "Mashr", said he doubted the reliability of the earlier information about the Kartoevs, disseminated by law enforcers.

"When people are arrested, and their detention is loudly advertised, and later it turns out that new accusations are needed as the initial ones are hard or impossible to prove, I lose confidence in the investigation and law enforcement agencies and begin to seriously doubt the earlier data of law enforcers," Magomed Mutsolgov told the "Caucasian Knot".