Kabardino-Balkaria: Ambassadors of Belgium and Netherlands meet mother of a militant accused of attacking Nalchik

On June 18, during their visit to Kabardino-Balkaria, plenipotentiaries of the Netherlands and Belgium Yan-Paul Dirkse and Bertrand de Krommeburg had a meeting with Mariam Akhmatova, mother of a suspect in the criminal case related to the attack on Nalchik in October 2005.

Ms Akhmatova said that before every court session certain defendants are severely beaten by the convoy soldiers. "Mothers are afraid that their sons will not survive till the end of this trial," the woman said.

The meeting with the public, and with Ms Akhmatova, in particular, was held after the Ambassadors had met Republic's President Arsen Kanokov. The guests said that they wanted to have a closer look at the Republic, and "not doing with media reports only, to see the country with their own eyes."

Mr Kanokov has noted that the Republic's image was seriously undermined by the 2005 events; the reasons are now studied and analyzed by the leadership of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) through a dialogue with the population and active interaction with all kinds of public association, trying to make this sort of things completely impossible for the future.