Those accused of kidnappings to be trialled in Chechnya

The Supreme Court of Chechnya has received a criminal case against five residents of the Republic accused of kidnappings with the aim to extort ransom. They were presented charges on a number of articles of the Criminal Code.

"A criminal case has been transferred to the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic initiated against the members of Magomed Musaev's criminal group. He and his four accomplices are accused of committing kidnappings in territory of the Chechen Republic in March-June 1999. After kidnapping persons, these gangsters, under threats of physical execution and violence over their victims, extorted money from their relatives in sums from 50 to 500 thousand US dollars," the law enforcement bodies of the Republic have reported.

"For a long time the criminals managed to escape justice, but all of them have been detained this year during successful operative-and-search actions. The bandits are charged under five Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation," said the source.

According to his explanations, these are articles on kidnapping, group rape, extortion in especially great volume and illegal circulation of the firearms. By aggregation of all the crimes they are under threat of life imprisonment.

The source has not named the victims of Musaev's group and the number of kidnappings accomplished by this group, saying only that "there were several such episodes."