Circumstances of kidnapping are investigated in Chechnya

Yesterday, on January 19, it became known about a new kidnapping in Chechnya. This time, a resident of the city of Gudermes, aged 24, became the victim of the crime committed back in early January.

"Yesterday in the evening a local lady-resident addressed the militia department of the Gudermes District and said that on January 2 in the vicinity of the Kirova Street of the city of Gudermes three unknown persons in camouflage and masks kidnapped her son Salman Mutaeva, 24. The applicant asserts that the kidnappers, threatening with physical execution, pushed her son into Zhiguli car and took away in an unknown direction," a source in law enforcement bodies of Chechnya told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In the opinion of the militiaman, such applications of citizens require careful verification.

"There are many cases when relatives of young men who left to join militants filed applications about kidnapping or disappearance of the children and relatives native," he has explained.

At the same time, according to the Grozny branch of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial", Mutaev's relatives addressed law enforcement bodies on the fact of his kidnapping back on January 2, but then they were offered to come again after the end of New Year holidays.

According to the "Memorial", this is already the second fact of kidnapping, registered in the republic from the beginning of this month.

Last year, as the "Memorial" asserts, a total 44 persons were kidnapped in the territory of Chechnya. And 12 of them were kidnapped during the last two months of 2008. Six of the kidnapped residents were later released, three were killed, and three more are still missing.

According to the "Caucasian Knot", in the period from January 1 to December 31, 2008, at least 45 persons were kidnapped by unknown criminals in Northern Caucasus.