08.12.2006
“Memorial” Suspects a Second Attempt at Fabricating a Criminal Case against the Members of Dzejtov Family
On December 3 2006 in the village of Assinovskaya, from the house at 50 years of October street, 39 was abducted Dzejtov Salman Roukmanovich, 1980. Unidentified men in camouflage uniform, who presented themselves as personnel of Achkhoi-Martan ROVD (District Department of Ministry of Internal Affairs), broke into the house of Dzejtovs, checked the documents of their men and without presenting sanctions for arrest detained Dzejtov Salman Roukmanovich. The unidentified men explained to the relatives of the detained that Salman would be interrogated in ROVD and released. However, Dzejtov did not return home either that evening or the following days. The relatives turned to Achkhoj-Martan ROVD, where they were told that their personnel did not participate in the detainment of Dzejtov.
6 December 2006 Salman Dzejtov was “discovered” in the IVS (Temporary Detainment Center) in Achkoj-Martan. The relatives managed to see Salman. They claim that he was beaten to such an extent that there was hardly an unbruised place on his body. Moreover, he was seriously injured in his leg.
“Memorial” defended the rights of Dzejtov family in 2005. In November 2005 were detained the brothers of Salman Dzejtov, Adlan and Adam. In October 2003 Adam and Adlan Dzejtov returned from Ingushetia where they lived as IDPs to Chechnya. They settled in Assinovskaja village, because their native village Bamut was leveled to the ground.
On August 2004, Adam left for the mountains to join armed groups, but the older brother immediately followed him, found him and returned him home. On November 13, 2004 armed men in masks abducted Adam from his home. However, after interrogations he was released the following day. When Adam was detained from his house, Adlan tried to interfere, however, he was seriously hit and injured, received an occipital cerebral trauma.
A year later, on November 27 2005, both brothers were detained in the village of Assinovskaya and delivered to ORB-2 (Operations-Reconnaissance Department, an institution, notorious for torture) of Urus-Martan District of the Chechen Republic. There, according to complaints brothers Dzejtov sent to the Prosecution of the Chechen Republic, brothers were subjected to torture, namely, beaten on the kidneys, back, head with a hammer, electrocuted, suffocated with a plastic bag.
The personnel of ORB threatened Dzejtov that torture would be continued if they complained about mistreatment. For this reason Dzejtovs did not dare to complain to the investigator of Prosecution in Achkhoj-Martan district, who interrogated them the following day after infliction of torture. It is obvious, however, that the investigator himself was well aware of Dzejtovs' condition, since even the medical documents, which the lawyer of Dzejtovs inquired from the preliminary detainment facility, stated that Adam Dzejtov had at least the “hemorrhage of both eyes” and Adlan Dzejtov had “scars on the head, nose, wrists”, complained of “headaches, fog in front of his eyes, giddiness, pains in the limbo sacral part of the backbone, movement deficiency in the loins”.
Regardless of the active position of the defense lawyer, in January-February 2006 brothers Dzejtov were repeatedly transferred to ORB of Urus-Martan district. According to their complaint to the Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic, ORB officers Aslan and Akhmed under threat of electrocution forced them to support their “confessions” provided at the stage of preliminary detainment in court. However, during court hearings Dzejtovs denied these 'confessions.'
In March 2006, both Dzejtov brothers were sentenced by Achkhoi-Martan court to 2.5 years in prison for crimes stipulated by article 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (participation in illegal armed formation). In the conditions of contemporary Chechnya there is high probability that Dzejtovs did not commit the crimes they were sentenced for, since those who are, indeed, involved in the activities of armed groups usually receive much longer sentences. In the end of October 2006 Adlan and Adam Dzejtovs were released as a grant of parole. And in early December 2006, another member of Dzejtov family had been abducted.
Your inquiries into the Dzejtov case, please, fax to:
The Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic, Kuznetsov V.A. +7 (8712) 22 31 44
The Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, Chajka Yu.Ya. + 7 (495) 692 17 25