Resident of Kabardino-Balkaria asserts he was kidnapped by armed men and tortured

Murat Kunashev, a resident of the city of Nartkaly, Kabardino-Balkaria, was kidnapped by unidentified armed men, who questioned him about his acquaintance with militants and forced him by torture to sign some documents. Then they let him go.

The kidnapping took place on February 22 in the morning. At about 9:00 a.m., men in masks and camouflage came to the car service, where Murat Kunashev works. They beat him, put into a VAZ-2114 car, roped his hands behind his back, put a plastic bag over his head and took him away to some unknown place.

According to his story, he was brought to some unknown place, where they took him up the stairs into some room. There, the kidnappers put him on the floor, fixed his legs with a tape and wrapped the tape over the plastic bag and his eyes and began asking whether Murat knew those who were hiding from the police and involved in illegal armed formations (IAFs) and whether he helped them. Kunashev answered in the negative; then, according to his story, they tortured him with electric current; and he lost consciousness.

When he awoke, they forced him to sign several documents, which he could not read, because the bag was still on his head. Then, on February 23, he was taken to the vicinity of hospital, where they took off the bag and left him alone. Murat Kunashev took a taxi and came home.

Later he turned on the fact of his kidnapping with applications to the Prosecutor's Office of Kabardino-Balkaria and human rights organizations, says the statement on the website the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".