Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia interrogates journalist Chapanov on article about kidnappings

Vakha Chapanov, head of the Information-Analytical Agency "Maximum", was summoned on 24 March to the Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Mr Chapanov himself.

The attention of the Office was drawn by the article "Situation remains tense", posted on March 17 on the website of his news agency. The article deals with the kidnapping of Movsar Tsurov and execution by power agents of his brother Magomed at a detention attempt.

The kidnapping of Movsar Tsurov, born in 1979, was reported to journalists by his mother Teizrat Tsurova. According to her story, Movsar was kidnapped in early February in the vicinity of Concord Square, when he came out of the store with the nephew. According to eyewitnesses, two automobiles approached him - an armoured Gazel van and a silver Lada Priora car. Armed men who were in the vehicles detained Movsar and took him to some unknown place. According to unconfirmed data at disposal of the Tsurovs, Movsar could be taken out to Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia).

Teizrat Tsurov sent her written applications about the incident to the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov, the Public Prosecutor Yuri Turygin, the Ombudsperson and human rights organizations.

One week after Movsar's kidnapping, on February 12, at about 7 p.m. Moscow time, in Nazran, policemen tried to stop a suspicious car; however, the unknown persons opened fire on them from inside. As a result of a skirmish, the two inside the car were killed. They were identified as Adam Shadyzhev, born in 1976, and Magomed Tsurov, born in 1977, the elder brother of the kidnapped Movsar. Under the official version, the casualties were members of the "Nazran grouping" and, possibly, could be involved in the murder on January 31, 2011, of Alikhan Tsoroev, head of the administration of the Tsentralny Municipal District of Nazran.

In his comment on the situation with Tsurov, Vakha Chapanov drew attention to the fact that in the territory of Ingushetia quite often young men killed in special operations by power agents are announced to be "chieftains or at least active participants of bandit formations."

"Two years ago Evkurov headed the republic, where the trust to the regional authorities had been essentially undermined. In order to regain that trust, it is not enough to liquidate members of IAFs (illegal armed formations). It is also necessary to toughly stop violations by those who had been appointed to protect law and order," said the article.

The Prosecutor's Office found these statements incorrect. Daud Mutaliev, Assistant of the Public Prosecutor, explained that Chapanov was summoned for explanations about the article. In his opinion, the situation in the republic at the moment is very strained; there is no reason to further escalate it by this sort of articles.

In his explanation, given to the prosecutor, the journalist explained that "the article published on the fact of the complaint of the relatives of the missing Tsurov (so far, there is no information about his fate) was focused on his search."

The Prosecutor's Office was satisfied with the explanation; however, Chapanov fears that his media may receive an official warning from the Office; and his right to free dissemination of information about what's happening in the republic may be broken.