Relatives of missing resident of Chechnya complain of police inaction

Law enforcement bodies of Chechnya have failed so far to locate Isa Magamaev, a resident of the Sunzha district of the republic, who disappeared more than three weeks ago under unclear circumstances. His relatives accuse the local MIA of inaction.

The fate of the 24-year-old resident of the village of Assinovskaya, Sunzha District of Chechnya Isa Magamaev, who left home back on May 12 and never returned, has not yet been established.

"On the fact of disappearance of Isa Magamaev, a resident of the village of Assinovskaya, all the actions, prescribed for such incidents, are conducted. His family and friends were questioned, other operative-search actions were undertaken; however, so far there are no concrete results. Various versions of what happened are studied," a source from the Chechen MIA told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

However, relatives and friends of Isa Magamaev assert that the police do nothing. "We filed applications to the prosecutor's office, ROVDs (District Interior Divisions) of the Sunzha Districts of Chechnya and Ingushetia and of the Achkhoi-Martan District. Initially, they wouldn't even take our applications, saying that we should wait a couple of days and that Isa might come home. More than three weeks have passed, but we see no results of his search," said a close relative of the Magamaevs, who asked not to disclose her name.

According to the woman, on the day of Isa Magamaev's disappearance, some special actions were conducted in the Sunzha District. She did not rule out that Isa could be detained by power agents.

"In the last two or three weeks our district is overwhelmed by lawlessness by power structures. Young people are constantly detained, beaten and forced to confess that they had been militants or helped them. Those whose fathers died during the war are persecuted. We all know how confessions are knocked out of detainees here. Maybe Isa had got in such situation," said the woman.

At the same time the source from the Chechen NIA said that often relatives declare people who went to join militants as missing. "In recent years there were plenty of facts, when families announced their relatives who had joined the bandits as missing or even kidnapped. Therefore, in this case nothing can be ruled out," he said.