Committee Against Torture: efficient investigation into Umarpashaev's abduction by local investigators is impossible

The Inter-Regional Committee Against Torture insists on transferring the criminal case on kidnapping of Islam Umarpashaev in Chechnya to an investigator in some other subject of the Russian Federation or of the central office of the Investigatory Committee under the Russian Prosecutor's Office (ICPO), claiming violations in the course of investigations conducted in the Chechen Republic.

The appeal to the ICPO Chairman Alexander Bastrykin asking to transfer the Umarpashaev's kidnapping case to some other region was sent out by the Committee Against Torture on November 3.

The Committee's arguments are as follows: investigators' failure to conduct the required investigatory actions in Chechnya; psychological pressure exerted on the victim and his relatives, supposed to be under state protection; and threats of execution addressed to them.

The Committee's appeal gives examples that investigatory actions on the case are held only on the request of the victim, that the information about Umarpashaev's evasion from appearance are false, and that he and his relatives are under pressure.

In particular, the human rights organization reports in the statement that on August 17 in the evening Umarpashaev's relatives were brought for a talk to Alikhan Tsekaev, commander of the local OMON (special militia), where Tsekaev and his subordinate Aslan told Islam's father and brother that the kidnapping had been committed by them and demanded that the relatives took actions to stop the criminal case; they referred to patronage of the interior minister of Chechnya.