Woman from Stary Cherek complains about disappearance of her husband

Family members of Arsen Bekov, who was detained in the course of the special operation held in the village of Stary Cherek in Kabardino-Balkaria, cannot reveal his whereabouts. Dinara Dzakuraeva, the wife of Arsen Bekov, has appealed to human rights defenders for help in finding her husband.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 6, a counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was introduced in Stary Cherek of the Urvan District. In the course of the special operation, law enforcers detained four persons suspected of aiding and abetting members of the armed underground.

At 5:00 a.m. of April 6, Arsen Bekov was detained by law enforcers and taken away to some unknown destination. The law enforcers arrived with their witnesses and categorically refuted the request of the family members of Arsen Bekov to call neighbours as witnesses. This was stated by Dinara Dzakuraeva, the wife of Arsen Bekov, in her letter to Ombudsman Boris Zumakulov and Valery Khatazhukov, the Chairman of the Human Rights Centre of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic.

During the search, the law enforcers found a package of ammunition under a mattress of the spouses' bedroom and seized a grenade from a closet. "Besides, they found drugs in a pocket of my husband's trousers that I washed the day before," Dinara Dzakuraeva has noted. The woman believes that all of those items were planted during the search.

According to his wife, Arsen Bekov adheres to the canons of traditional Islam and believes that the persecution for his religious views is inadmissible.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.