In Dagestan, two women, earlier detained by police, disappear, human rights activists report

Information about the detention on March 24 in the suburbs of Makhachkala of the persons suspected of possessing weapons does not represent the real facts. This was stated by activists of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" and the public organization "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy).

On March 24, in the course of the search and investigatory operations in the suburbs of Makhachkala, police officers blocked 4 persons in the house. According to the Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), 2 young men and 2 women aged less than 25 years hid in the house large quantity of ammunition. The press service has noted that power agents managed to persuade the unidentified persons to go out only after negotiations.

The human rights activists voice other information received from relatives of the detainees.

"In the late evening of March 24, power agents cordoned off the house on the outskirts of Makhachkala, at Krivaya Balka. There were three young men in the house Rasul Abdulaev, Rasul Magomedov, Rustam Aliev and wives of two of those young men 18-year-old Madina Abdulaeva , the wife of Rustam Aliev and another woman, not identified yet. They rented that house," the activists of the public organization " Pravozaschita " told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the human rights activists, one of the rooms of the house was occupied by another man, "in the evening, he went out, and the house was immediately cordoned off." "Someone managed to inform the owner of the house, and he soon arrived; power agents were going to break into the house, and they told to the owner that the house was occupied by militants. The owner said it was nonsense the house was occupied by two young families, and he would go inside and persuade all the people to go out. And so it happened. The power agents immediately driven all the people away with them," a staff member of the public organization " Pravozaschita " has explained.

"We tried to find them in the evening of March 24 and failed. In the morning, Gyulnara Rustamova has received to her mobile phone an SMS from unknown phone number, reporting that Abdulaev, Magomedov, and Rasulov are kept at the Kirov ROVD (District Interior Division) and tortured," the source emphasized.

Elena Denisenko, the representative of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" has added that officers from the Kirov ROVD answered to the phone called of the human rights activists and the lawyers that no detainees with mentioned were kept at their place.

"In the end, after the Prosecutor of the Kirov District arrived to the ROVD, the police officers answered that the detained young people were really kept at the ROVD; however, a protocol about administrative penalty had been already completed and the young people were brought to the special detention facility. According to the lawyers, the young people were charged of administrative violation of a strange character as an excuse to detention. Moreover, when the defenders have come to the special detention facility, they were told that those people were not brought to their place," Elena Denisenko has clarified.

Police officers from the duty unit of the Kirov ROVD told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that on March 24-25, the detainees with mentioned names were not brought to their place.