Residents of Kabardino-Balkaria detained in Stavropol Territory are beaten

Three residents of Kabardino-Balkaria detained on September 24 in Stavropol Territory under suspicion of participating in attack on Republic's power agencies are exposed to beatings. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by advocate Elena Bairamkulova, who is defending one of the detainees - Rustam Karanashev, born in 1982, a resident of Stary Cherek village, Urvan District.

Ms Bairamkulova sent petitions on the fact of cruel treatment of her client Karanashev to the Public Prosecutor of the city of Pyatigorsk, Public Prosecutor of Kabardino-Balkaria Oleg Zharikov, General Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika, Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, Foundation in Defence of Prisoners, Human Rights Centre "Memorial", Public Human Rights Centre of Kabardino-Balkaria, and to the European Committee on Torture Prevention.

"My client has complained that he had been violently beaten and subjected to psychological and physical pressure by militiamen," the lawyer informs.

Further Elena Bairamkulova wrote that she had addressed the head of the IVS (temporary detention facility) asking him to hold medical examination of Karanashev, however, her request was rejected.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by detainee's mother Svetlana Karanasheva that her son was detained on the border of Kabardino-Balkaria and Stavropol Territory in the area of Tambukan Lake, when he was making his way, together with his two friends who were also detained, went to the Goryachevodsk marketplace to buy winter clothes there.

"In the course of personal search, 2.14 grams of hashish were taken out of my son's pocket, but I'm convinced that the drug was planted on him, since he neither drinks nor smokes," said Svetlana Karanasheva.

The detainee's mother said that on Uraza-Bairam, when her son was fasting, she brought a food parcel for him, but it was rejected, despite the fact that the internal regulations of the IVS envision the right of suspects and accused persons to receive a 30 kg food parcel once a month. She tried to address the head of the IVS, but in vain.

Svetlana Karanasheva also said that after her son's detention their house was searched three times. During the third search, in the distant section of their kitchen garden, where they plant potatoes, operative agents dug out a sub-machine gun and 135 cartridges. Svetlana said that neither her son nor she know where the weapon had appeared from.