Open appeal on the threats against human rights
activists and journalists in Dagestan
To
The President of the
The Prosecutor General of
The Director of Federal Security Service A. Bortnikov
We appeal to you regarding
threats. A group of "relatives of killed policemen" claimed
responsibility for some killings and made death threats to journalists, human
rights activists and advocates in the distributed leaflet.
At the beginning of
September 2009, hundreds of leaflets written on behalf of "relatives of
policemen killed in Dagestan" have been distributed throughout
It's affirmed in the
leaflets that on August 23, 2009 the sentence against "the group of
bandits involved in terrorist acts and killings of officers of law enforcement
authorities and civil citizens" was executed. Authors of the leaflets
refer to abducted Artur Butayev, Gadji Gudaliev and Amiraslan Islamov. Their
bodies were found on August 26 in a burned car.
Thus, either law
enforcement authorities try to put responsibility for its crimes upon a mystic
secret organization of "avengers", or another terrorist group is
being organized in
We urge you to do
everything to guarantee the safety of the people whom the "avengers"
called their enemies.
Orlov Oleg,
Human Rights Center Memorial
Ponomarev Lev, All-Russia movement "For Human rights"
For the whole text of the
appeal and the text of the leaflet visit Memorial site: http://www.memo.ru/2009/09/08/0809091.htm
September 8, 2009