Grozny resident complains about investigators' inaction in her son's kidnapping

Zura Matsaeva from Grozny has stated that for almost eight months she knows nothing about her 31-year-old son Rizvan Matsaev. The latter's relatives and friends believe that he was kidnapped by some law enforcement body and complain about investigators' inaction. The Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) refuses to comment on the incident.

On January 20 this year, Rizvan Matsaev, born in 1982, left his home for the morning prayer in the mosque and never returned, said his mother. According to her story, her son had nothing to do with illegal armed formations (IAFs) and could not voluntarily leave home.

The woman believes that her son was one of those detained during the "preventive" operations by Chechen law enforcers, when young people wearing beards were taken to police stations.

A few days after Matsaev's detention, three more of his friends disappeared; this was reported by some of their relatives, who, however, feared to make the facts public because of the "warnings" received from power agents that "in this case they would never see their sons again."

Igor Kalyapin, the head of the "Committee against Torture", doubts that the republic has now much fewer kidnappings; he attributes the decrease to the fact that relatives now prefer not to turn to human rights organizations.

Oleg Orlov, a member of the Board of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", has noted that in most cases relatives are afraid to complain anywhere.