Human rights activists ask Council of Europe to investigate messages on secret prisons in Chechnya

The International Helsinki Federation for human rights called the Council of Europe to hold an investigation into the messages about secret prisons in Chechnya. According to human rights activists, inmates of these prisons are subject to beating and tortures to extract evidences, and sometimes they are executed out of court and investigation.

Human rights activists submitted their report to Dick Marti, representative of the Council of Europe, who is in charge of investigating the information about secret prisons of the CIA in European countries, Radio Liberty reports.

"Information arrived repeatedly that Tsentoroj, the family village of the Kadyrovs in Chechnya, has an illegal custody for kidnapped persons who are tortured there. The most well-known episode is the custody in the village of relatives of Aslan Maskhadov, former leader of Chechen separatists. It is then clear, why the delegation of the Committee Against Tortures of the Council of Europe was at first not let, but then permitted to visit the village: in the small Tsentoroj within half an hour the kidnapped persons may be easily transferred from one place into another," Alexander Cherkasov, member of the Board of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial", told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot."

Hampering the work of inspectors of the Council of Europe is contrary to the international liabilities of Russia, Cherkasov asserts. According to Sergey Davidis, head of the legal group of the Anti-War Club, it is also a violation of the internal legislation of the state. Foreign citizens who are legally staying in the territory of the Russian Federation have the right to visit any dwelling settlement of the country, except for those places specifically stipulated in Federal Laws or regulatory acts of the government of Russia. If the access into the village was restricted by the officials of the subject of the Federation, this crime is qualified in the RF Criminal Code as "arbitrariness" (Article 330 of the CCRF), the lawyer explained to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot."

The illegal prison in the village of Tsentoroj of the Kurchaloj District of Chechnya is controlled by the so-called "Kadyrovtsy," the fighters of the Security Service of the president of Chechen Republic (ChR) - the strongest power agency formed in Chechnya out of local residents in the times of Akhmad-Hadji Kadyrov. It comprised many of those who fought against the federal forces and then agreed to surrender under personal guarantees of Akhmad-Hadji. The structure was headed by his son Ramzan Kadyrov. After the death of A.-H. Kadyrov, the service was reorganized into the regiment of Patrol-Post Service of Militia (PPSM 2). Also, the "Kadyrovtsy" formed the Anti-Terrorist Centre of the MIA of the Republic. Recently, these units were transformed into the "Sever" (North) and "Yug" (South) battalions of Internal Troops, and will formally subordinate to the command of the North-Caucasian Zone of Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Russian Federation. In the opinion of many experts, the real power over the new battalions will remain in the hands of Ramzan Kadyrov.

Illegal custodies in Chechnya, according to mass media and human rights activists, are located also in the territory of the Operations and Search Bureau of the North-Caucasian Operations Department of the Chief Administration of the MIA of Russia in the South Federal District ("OSB-2") in Grozny and Russian Military Base in Khankala, and in some other places where power units are deployed. One of the residents of Chechnya told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" that such illegal prison is located, in particular, in the territory of the FSB RF unit in the village of Starye Atagi.