"Memorial" prepares materials on power agents' crimes in Dagestan for ICRF

Materials on the crimes committed by employees of law enforcement bodies in Dagestan will be transferred to the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation additionally, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has reported. The crimes are rapes, murders, acts of torture and kidnappings.

Appeals to the ICRF are the HRC's usual practice; and answers come, as required by law, within a month.

"These are not just victims' applications – these are cases, elaborated by lawyers, advocates, sometimes at the local level, sometimes up to filing complaints to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), even accompanied by some ECtHR's decision. That is, these are developed stories, where we have not only citizens' complaints, on which it is enough to send ordinary inquiries to the Prosecutor's Office or the ICRF – these are cases, each having a substantial dossier," Alexander Cherkasov, an employee of the HRC "Memorial", explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On most of the crimes described in the appeal, criminal cases had been initiated; however, they are suspended and not investigated. The persons, who had committed the crimes, were not identified by inspectors; and no charges have been presented.

Only in 2011-2012, the HRC gathered materials on seven crimes committed by law enforcers in Dagestan, said Elena Denisenko, the local employee of the HRC "Memorial".

"In reality, there are much more crimes of this sort – facts of torture, killings, disappearances and extrajudicial executions," said Elena. "We are talking now about confirmed statements. But rather often people are intimidated and they give up their earlier words; or they refuse to follow their advocates' advice to undergo medical examination in order to register traces of beatings in the defendants. While the appeal is processed, traumas get healed and traces disappear."