In Chechnya, investigators decline human rights defenders' request to institute criminal case on torture of Ruslan Kutaev

In Chechnya, investigators have refused to institute a criminal case to investigate the report of the human right defenders: they have reported that Ruslan Kutaev, President of the "Assembly of Peoples of Caucasus" who is kept in custody on charges of illegal possession of drugs, was subjected to torture. This was reported by the interregional public organization "Committee against Torture".

Let us remind you that the human rights defenders have received the information about use of physical violence against Ruslan Kutaev with the purpose to force him to give confession. After investigation, the human rights defenders qualified that violence as torture.

The human right defenders of the Joint Mobile Group, who visited Ruslan Kutaev in the SIZO (pre-trial prison), sent a report on acts of torture to the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

It should be noted that the international human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) associates the prosecution of Ruslan Kutaev with the fact that on February 18, during the scientific conference, he criticized the position of Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, who banned to hold on February 23 the memorial events to mark the start date of the deportation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples.