27 October 2020, 18:55
Detentions in Rostov-on-Don prove Chechen law enforcers' claims for special status
The detentions of Adam Dotmerzaev and Musa Ashakhanov during their trip to Rostov-on-Don continued the trend of detention of fellow countrymen by Chechen law enforcers beyond the republic, despite the practice of interaction with the regional law enforcement bodies.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 4, Adam Dotmerzaev and Musa Ashakhanov, residents of the village of Samashki in the Achkhoi-Martan District of Chechnya, were detained in Rostov-on-Don. When relatives learned that the detainees had been transported to Achkhoi-Martan, they managed to hand over a parcel for them, but when they complained about the detention of their family members to the Prosecutor's Office, law enforcers denied that Adam Dotmerzaev and Musa Ashakhanov were being kept at their place, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reported on October 20. According to a source of the HRC "Memorial", Adam Dotmerzaev and Musa Ashakhanov are still being kept in Achkhoi-Martan and are being subjected to torture.
So, on September 6, Salman Tepsurkaev was kidnapped from a hotel in the city of Gelendzhik. A hotel employee told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that some people came for Salman Tepsurkaev, and one of them showed a hotel receptionist an ID of a law enforcement body's agent. On September 30, Mikhail Galperin, Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), stated that Salman Tepsurkaev had not been detained by law enforcers and had not been subjected to ill-treatment. Human rights defenders and activists of the 1Adat Movement treated the Mr Galperin's statement as unconvincing and explained that they had recognized the law enforcers involved in the kidnapping of Salman Tepsurkaev.
In September, the wide public outcry was provoked by the video in which naked Salman Tepsurkaev was sitting down on a bottle and explaining that he was doing that as punishment for his cooperation with the 1Adat Telegram Channel, which criticized the Chechen authorities.
In June 2017, in Belarus, law enforcers detained athlete Murad Amriev, who in 2013 left Chechnya after being detained and tortured. He was taken to a temporary detention facility in Grozny and then released on recognizance not to leave.
It often happens that people are detained on the territories of other regions without notification of the local law enforcement bodies, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been informed by Moscow advocate Yevgeny Chernousov, retired Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). Nevertheless, law enforcers from other regions are to notify their local colleagues of upcoming events in their region, Yevgeny Chernousov says.
The advocate has also added that a law enforcer's ID entitles a law enforcer to carry out any law enforcement actions only on his territory. In case if law enforcers went to another region to detain someone, then they must call their local colleagues to the place of detention, and they must also have, for example, a court's decision on detention of a suspect or an accused, Yevgeny Chernousov notes.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 27, 2020 at 01:19 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
