Rights defenders inform Moskalkova about people missing in Chechnya

Materials of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" about 13 residents of Chechnya, who disappeared after being detained by law enforcers, were handed over to Tatiana Moskalkova, Human Rights Commissioner under the President of the Russian Federation, and members of the Presidential Human Rights Council. According to residents of Chechnya, fabrication of cases and torture became ordinary.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 24, the HRC "Memorial" reported the disappearance of 13 people in Chechnya, detained in December and February.

Oleg Orlov, the chairman of the board for the Presidential Human Rights Council, has reported that from the correspondence with the competent authorities, the human rights defenders just learned that a case had been instituted against the detainees for attacking policemen.

According to Oleg Orlov, it is extremely difficult to get information from relatives and friends of the detainees. In the conditions of the totalitarian regime, people are afraid to harm a person who is kept in custody and who is likely still alive.

The human rights defenders possess the information about at least half of the people on the list compiled by the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta". However, according to Alexander Cherkasov, the chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Council, no quick result should be expected from the verification of those data.

Residents of Chechnya report that law enforcers detain young men on absurd pretexts.

A resident of the Achkhoi-Martan District has said that law enforcers detained a local shepherd and accused him of putting under a tree some packs with food for militants. According to the resident of Chechnya, relatives paid 200,000 roubles to release the shepherd.

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