Torture victims complain about law enforcers to North-Ossetian Ombudsperson

Seven people, beaten up by law enforcers in Mozdok, have met Tamerlan Tsgoev, the Ombudsperson in North Ossetia. Law enforcers and local authorities fail to react to complaints of torture, the victim's advocate has stated.

According to Anas Elmurzaev, an advocate, victims of torture are mostly ordinary Mozdok townspeople.

"A resident of Chechnya had his head broken ... They beat up several Russian women, one of them in front of her children," said the advocate.

In his opinion, they are trying to slander his clients. "They call some of them drug addicts, and treat others as pimps," the defender asserts. He believes that Mozdok District law enforcement bodies are sheltering their colleagues' crimes.

In 2016, Mokhmad Musaev, a native of Chechnya, was taken to a power body division and beaten up by three law enforcers; after which he became disabled.

Rakhim Kairbekov, a resident of the village of Kizlyar, Mozdok District, said that he was on his way to work and was illegally detained. According to his story, drugs were planted into his car.

Irina Shefatova, a resident of North Ossetia, called herself a victim of law enforcers' actions in 2015. They beat the woman up and planted a package of marijuana into her bra, after which she was found guilty of drug possession and convicted conditionally.

The advocate has noted that such cases require a lot of publicity. According to his story, complaints of torture sent to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) from the Caucasian regions are in hundreds.