Removed prisoner lost again

Caucasian Knot's correspondent has learnt from Ms Fatima Tekayeva, the mother of the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Rasul Kudayev, that her son is not in the White Swan prison in Piatigorsk, Stavropol territory. This is what prison workers told her when she was trying to find out something about her son and pass medicines to him.

"I was told, unofficially, not to look for the son until the end of the month, so I will perhaps be told where he is," Ms Tekayeva said.

Rasul Kudayev, a native of Kabardino-Balkaria who is currently charged with taking part in the 13 October 2005 developments in the republican capital, Nalchik, disappeared from the Nalchik temporary detention isolator as far back as December last year after he had been visited by Dmitry Kozak, the Russian president's envoy to the South federal district, and Arsen Kanokov, President of Kabardino-Balkaria. Mr Kudayev told them about the torture he had been subjected to after his detention. This is what Rasul wrote in a letter to his mother:

"Kozak and Kanokov came to me yesterday. They asked me how I had been detained and what I had been told. They asked about everything in detail. I told them all I knew, that I had been detained without any good reason and that I was not guilty. Kanokov listened how I had been tortured and he was so angry that veins swelled on his neck. But, of course, I was not able to tell them about everything in detail... In short, they saw for themselves what utter abuse was going on. Kanokov was very angry when he was leaving. I saw in his face that he was not a bad person. And I saw in Kozak's face that he was a fair person."

As was reported earlier, Mr Kozak's visit was caused by publication on the internet of photos of several detained people with marks of torture. After that, Dmitry Kozak announced that law enforcement agencies would disclose all information about the 13 October events and journalists would be able to visit the temporary detention isolator in no longer than a couple of days.

The press was not allowed to the detention isolator on the appointed day, but later journalists of several central television channels were finally admitted to suspects. Rasul Kudayev was among those whom they interviewed. He denied his participation in the attack on law enforcement and security agencies on 13 October. He said that he prayed, but did not support the idea of creating an Islamic state in the Caucasus as he had been to Afghanistan and seen what an Islamic state was: "War is under way there all the time."

The journalists did not ask him about torture.

After the visit of Messrs Kozak and Kanokov, Rasul Kudayev disappeared from the Nalchik detention isolator. He was brought away to the Piatigorsk prison for the period of Eid al-Adha as ordered by Aleksei Sovrulin, chief of the investigation group of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office for the South federal district, according to unofficial information. However, it turned out later that this information was not true. Those who are interested in Rasul Kudayev's destiny are beginning to be afraid for his life.

• Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner found in Piatigorsk