Woman from Kabardino-Balkaria wants to bury her son killed in special operation

Maria Mameeva, a resident of Khasanya village, Kabardino-Balkaria, has addressed the Chegem District Court with a complaint against the decision of the inspector of the Baksan Inter-District Investigatory Division of the Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) on refusal to give out the body of her son Rustam Mameev for burial according to Muslim traditions.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported earlier that Rustam Mameev has been killed on October 6, 2008 in the course of the special operation conducted by law enforcing agents in the Chegem District. According to the latter, Rustam and Mukhanmad Baikaziev, a resident of Yankoy village, rendered armed resistance at detention. Then, 2 sub-machine guns, a Makarov pistol and a grenade were found in their car.

Inspector Ya. Sabanchiev's refusal to give out the body says that according to the law "On Burial and Funeral Business", "burial of the persons, whose criminal prosecution because of their involvement in terrorist activities was stopped by their death as a result of suppressing such terrorist activities, shall be made in the order established by the Government of the Russian Federation; bodies of such persons are not given out for burial, and nobody shall be informed about the burial place."

Ms Mameeva said in her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the inspector had argued that Rustam Mameev was suspected of the attack on law enforcement bodies of the republic on October 13, 2005.

"Even if my son was a suspect in that case, this is no reason not to give his body out, since his death had nothing to do with any committed terror act. According to the law, this is an obligatory precondition," she said.

Ms Mameevа has also appealed against the inspector's refusal to provide her with copies of the statements on initiation of the criminal case against Rustam Mameev and on its termination because of death, and of the forensic examination of her son's body.

It became known from duly informed sources that a complaint to the court is also drafted by Nina Odizheva, mother of Ruslan Odizhev, killed in June 2007, whose body, according to some information, is kept from August 2007 in the morgue in Nalchik. Ms Odizheva was also refused by the ICPO's Division of the KBR to have her son's body for burial.