Chechnya's MIA accuses Dagestan human rights activist Magomedov of complicity to militants

Abdurakhim Magomedov, a resident of the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, who is co-chairman of the human rights organization "Civil Alternative", detained last October, is accused of complicity to militants. This was reported by a source of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent in law enforcement bodies of Chechnya. According to the source, a criminal case was initiated against Mr Magomedov.

"The detention of Abdurakhim Magomedov was made with observance of all remedial norms," the source has asserted. "The law enforcement bodies of Chechnya possess information that last October he used his personal car to transport two IAF (illegal armed formation) participants from the grouping of field commander Rappani Khalilov from the Khasavyurt District to the city of Kizil-Yurt. On October 12, 2005, the investigatory department of the temporary OVD (Interior Unit) of the Nozhay-Yurt District of the Chechen Republic initiated a criminal case against citizen Magomedov, and on the following day he was detained by employees of the Chechen MIA in the course of operative-search actions in the village of Novo-Sasitli of the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan."

"In relation to Magomedov, arrest was chosen as the freedom restriction measure, and he was accused under two points of Article 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which assumes criminal punishment for complicity to IAF participants. So far, the law enforcement bodies of the Chechen Republic have no information that Abdurakhim Magomedov is a co-chairman of the "Civil Alternative". Even if Magomedov is a human rights activist, his detention has nothing to do with his activities in this capacity," said the source from Chechnya's MIA.

Earlier, the Prosecutor's Office of the Chechen Republic officially confirmed to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent the fact of Abdurakhim Magomedov's detention in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan.

"On October 13, 2005, in Novo-Sasitli village of the Khasavyurt District of the Republic of Dagestan, the law enforcement bodies of the Chechen Republic detained Magomedov, Abdurakhim Omarovich, born in 1943, on suspicion of committing a crime stipulated by Part 5, Article 33, and Part 2, Article 208, of the CC of the Russian Federation: 'Complicity to participants of illegal armed formation," the Republic's Prosecutor's Office has announced today. "In October 2003, citizen Magomedov, having entered into a criminal arrangement with a proxy of field commander Rappani Khalilov, transported in his personal car two participants of the said IAF from a large forest near Kandauraur village of the Khasavyurt District of the Republic of Dagestan to the railway station of the city of Kizil-Yurt with the aim to hide them from law enforcement bodies and ensure their further travel across the territory of the Russian Federation."

The spokesman of the Chechen Prosecutor's Office has also told that "on October 12, 2005, the investigatory division of the temporary interior department of the Nozhay-Yurt District of the Chechen Republic opened a criminal case. The Gudermes City Court of Chechnya has ruled to restrict Magomedov's freedom by means of arresting him."

We remind you that several days ago journalist Abdurashid Saidov informed the Chechen Human Rights Centre that in the morning on October 13, 2005, in Novo-Sasitli village of the Khasavyurt District, unknown people in camouflage arrested and took away out of Dagestan, probably, to the Chechen Republic, Abdurakhim Magomedov, co-chairman of the human rights organization "Civil Alternative".

Mr Magomedov is a scientist-Arabist, well-known in Dagestan and Northern Caucasus, the translator of Koran into the Avar language. He was one of the initiators of an independent investigation into the fate of several young men kidnapped from his village, his brother among them. The Makhachkala newspaper "Chernovik" (Blueprint) wrote about this investigation in May this year.

"The eyewitnesses of the incident say that on October 13, at 7:30 a.m., two UAZ cars, colloquially called 'tablets', arrived to Magomedov's house in Novo-Sasitli village of the Khasavyurt District. People in camouflage, some of them in masks, got out of the cars, rushed into the house, and hastily drove the human rights activist out, not giving him even time to dress," Mr Shakhbanov said. "The relatives were not told where and why he was detained. Only later, we managed to find out that he was taken to the Nozhay-Yurt District. Some more days later, somebody called to Novo-Sasitli from Nozhay-Yurt and confirmed that their fellow villager was kept at the Nozhay-Yurt ROVD. An officer, who asked not to disclose his name, tried to find Magomedov's whereabouts contacted Vakhit Mukhamadiev, Public Prosecutor of the Nozhay-Yurt District. According to the officer, the prosecutor told him, in a private conversation: "Yes, my guys took him: he jumped too much."