13:22, 25 November 2003

Salambek Maigov's election staffer about detention of his colleague

"The (assumed) abduction of one of Salambek Maigov?s election staffers was not a public relations stunt because we don?t need anything like this," campaign manager Adlan Khasuyev stated to the correspondent.

According to Khasuyev, his deputy, Ibragim Umarkhadzhiyev, was truly detained by security forces in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny.

Earlier that day news spread that Maigov had rescued about sixty people that had been missing and he was going to bring them to an electorate meeting in Grozny; thus relatives of the missing Chechens gathered there to await Maigov. However, that information was false and what is more Maigov had not planned to hold any meetings in the Staropromyslovsky district.

"As soon as we learned that people were gathering, Umarkhadzhiyev hurried over there to clear things up," said Khasuyev.

The policemen who watched the crowd amassed assumed that Umarkhadzhiyev had summoned them there. When it turned out that neither Maigov nor his colleagues were responsible for this assembly, he was set free. Maigov, meanwhile, was actually at a meeting of voters in Urus-Martan.

Source: Prague Watchdog