Rustam Aushev was kidnapped by power agents of Ingushetia, his lawyer reports

Rustam Aushev, a resident of Ingushetia, was kidnapped in the city of Minvody by FSB agents from Ingushetia and now may be kept in Magas, said Magomed Gandaur-Egi, Mr Aushev's lawyer. He asked rights defenders to find out the exact whereabouts of the defendant. The FSB Department for Ingushetia said that they knew nothing about Aushev's whereabouts.

In order to determine the whereabouts of his client, Gandaur-Egi has turned to the branch of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Nazran.

According to the lawyer, on March 6, Ahmedkhan Aushev, Rustam's brother, received a telegram signed by Kobeev, a senior investigator for especially important cases of the FSB Department for the Stavropol Territory. The telegram said that Rustam Aushev was detained on February 17 at the railway station of the city of Minvody by FSB agents from Ingushetia and on the same day taken away from the Territory.

It became known from a telephone conversation with the head of the FSB in Ingushetia that "the above citizen, born in 1988, a resident of the city of Nazran, was kept by their agency"; the above telegram said he was accused under the articles of "banditry" and "organization of a criminal community".

On March 7, the lawyer Gandaur-Egi addressed the Department of the FSB in Magas asking for a permit to meet his client; he was not allowed. The lawyer said that "the on duty officer at the check point said, after talking on the phone with someone from the investigatory division, that Rustam Aushev was not there; and they knew nothing about the criminal case brought against him."

As of March 13, Aushev's whereabouts was not established.