Advocate Uvaisov: MIA agents planted arms on Butdaeva

Ziyavudin Uvaisov, advocate of Dinara Butdaeva, whose indictment was approved by the Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan on the criminal case of involvement in an armed formation, illegal purchase, storage and transportation of firearms, has stated the innocence of his client.

According to the Prosecutor's office of Dagestan, on January 10, 2009, Butdaeva made her way from Makhachkala to Khasavyurt with the aim to transport fire-arms and ammunition to some person who remained unidentified by the inquiry. In the course of her personal inspection at the Road Patrol Service post, militiamen found and confiscated two bags with firearms, ammunition, explosives, explosive substance, an F-1 grenade, a grenade fuse, and an automatic firearm muffler.

Besides, militiamen also found a sportive bag allegedly hidden by her near the railroad tracks in Khasavyurt and containing a self-made pistol-machine gun and 1080 cartridges.

"She's innocent. The prosecutor's office has no proofs. She was planted firearms in Kizilyurt. These were not Dinara's but militia's arms. Same in Khasavyurt - under a far-fetched pretext they assert that it was her firearms," Ziyavudin Uvaisov, Dinara Butdaeva's advocate, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Svetlana Isaeva, leader of the human rights organization "Mother of Dagestan", sticks to the same opinion.

"All the case of this sort that we trace have evidences of falsifications made by law enforcers. I admit that this can be the case here," Ms Isaeva believes.

In her opinion, the found amount of arms is just impossible to carry.

"She was permanently shadowed and warned. After her brother Vadim Butdaev was killed in a special operation, she was told: 'You're the next.' Would a person, knowing that she's shadowed by law enforcers risk her life in this way? I'll never believe in that," Svetlana Isaeva said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to Butdaeva's advocate, in Dinara's bag they found 26 cartridges and a disassembled grenade, while her fingerprints were forced on the pistol-machine gun by militiamen.

According to Ms Isaeva, the "Mothers of Dagestan" are constantly accused of contacts with Butdaeva. However, as Isaeva asserts, Butdaeva was never a member of the organization and nothing to do with it. But Dinara's senior sister Gyulnara is a co-chair of the "Mothers of Dagestan". In Ms Isaeva's opinion, this fact is used by mass media for discrediting the organization.

The statement of the prosecutor's office that the bag with firearms and ammunition found in Khasavyurt belonged to Dinara Butdaeva caused doubts in Dmitri Berkut, former employee of MIA's special detachment.

"It's difficult to imagine a woman, carrying a bag with a thousand cartridges and firearms. An average weight of a pistol-machine gun is 4-5 kilos. The statement doesn't specify what arms the ammunition was intended for - each cartridge of 5.45 mm calibre weighs 10.2 grams, and of 7.62 mm calliper - 16.2 grams. One thousand of such cartridges will weigh more than 10 and 16 kilos, accordingly, plus firearms," said Mr Berkut.

"Now, the criminal case with the indictment is in the court. The inquiry will refrain so far from additional comments," Nizam Radzhabov, spokesman of the PR service of the Investigatory Division of the Investigatory Committee for the Republic of Dagestan, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent and refused to answer any additional questions.