Dagestan: three Kidero villagers disappear after detention, rights defenders report

In the village of Kidero, Tsuntin District of Dagestan, law enforcers conducted searches in the houses of Magomed Abdulkhalikov, Shakhban Magomedov and Magomed Magomedov and took the young men away to some unknown place. Currently, their whereabouts are unknown. On April 20, 2011, Mukhtar Kamaludinovich Zhabuev, a resident of the village, submitted a respective application to the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

According to Mr Zhabuev, on April 19, the village was visited by the employees of the Investigatory Department and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Republic of Dagestan to search the houses of Abdulkhalikov, Shakhban Magomedov and Magomed Magomedov.

The Abdulkhalikov's house was searched in the presence of witnesses, but the owner was absent. During the search of a cellar, they found a pistol with as filed-off serial number. Magomed Abdulkhalikov, who came home later, said that he had nothing to do with that pistol; he did not rule out that the pistol was planted by power agents. Investigators charged Magomed with illegal possession of arms and took him away.

Shakhban Magomedov's house was also searched with witnesses and in the absence of the owner. In the room, where Shakhban lives, they found a pistol with a filed-off serial number. Shakhban came home after the search and said that he had no relation to the detected pistol. The MIA agents took Magomedov away with them.

According to unconfirmed information, on the road between the villages of Gubden and Karabudakhkent, Shakhban managed to jump out of the car and escape. At the moment, neither his relatives nor law enforcers know where he is.

The investigators and MIA agents also wanted to search the house of Magomed Magomedov in the absence of the owner. However, his relatives did not let anybody in before his arrival, and then carefully followed the search. During the search nothing illegal was found.

Then, Magomed was asked to come to the village police station for a talk, and was promised that it would not take more than several minutes. However, he was not let out from the police station; and his relatives were not given any explanations about Magomed's detention.