Three persons detained in Chechnya within a day

In Chechnya, employees of power agencies continue detaining former participants of armed formations and their suspected helpers. Within the last 24 hours only, three local residents have been detained by law enforcers under suspicion of being militants.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya reports: "Within the last 24 hours, as a result of successful operative-search actions, three persons were detained in two districts of the Republic and on the city of Argun: two former participants of bandit underground gangs and a helper of IAFs (illegal armed formations). The militants' helper, who supplied the gang of certain Ibragimov with foodstuffs from summer to autumn of 2002, was detained by operative fighters at his residence in Gordali village of the Nozhay-Yurt District."

"Also at his residence, in Starye Atagi village, Grozny District, a local resident was arrested, who was a member, from January to September 1999, of Zakaev's gang. The third detainee - a resident of Grozny - was detained in the city of Argun. It's been established that in 2004 he was a member of Abdulkarimov's bandit grouping," a militia source asserts.

According to his story, now the detainees are checked for their possible involvement in grave or especially grave crimes. However, the source has evaded the question about the claims that law enforcement bodies could have to the resident of Starye Atagi accused of being a militant in autumn-winter of 1999, that is, between two Chechen military campaigns, when he could not take part in any warfare.

The day before, the law enforcement bodies reported about detention in Chechnya of five local residents, also accused of complicity to militants and participation in illegal armed formations. If to rely on official data, from the start of this year, more than 20 persons were detained in the territory of the Chechen Republic on suspicion of participating in the armed underground and rendering assistance to militants.

Yesterday, on January 28, in Chechnya, a teenager was convicted on accusations of complicity to members of armed formations. The City Court of Urus-Martan sentenced Mitsilagov, 16, who for some time last year delivered foodstuffs to militants, to five months of corrective colony. When passing the verdict, the Court took into account the age and frank repentance of the convict.