Abductions and Disappearances in the Republic of Dagestan

10.08.2007

The social and political landscape of Dagestan is distinct from the neighboring republics of the North Caucasus. The population of Dagestan is comprised of numerous ethnic groups (unlike almost mono-ethnic Chechnya and Ingushetia), which creates a multiplicity of social forces at work in the republic, and presupposes the accommodation of their interests, and the resolution of emerging conflicts and tensions. This on the one hand impedes the centralization of power at the republican level and prevents the emergence of an authoritarian regime, but on the other hand the “accommodation of interests” and “conflict resolution” in Dagestan often happen informally and, in fact, illegally, which in the end of the day shapes the political process in the republic. The population of Dagestan historically has had a high level of Islamic religiosity, which survived even the era of militant Soviet atheism. The quality of life in the republic is among the lowest in the Russian Federation, while corruption is unprecedented even for the very corrupt North Caucasian region.

During recent years, human rights organizations - both Russian and international - did not pay much attention to the situation in Dagestan. War crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Chechnya pushed the problems of human rights abuse in the neighboring republics into the background. At the same time, for almost two decades Dagestan has been caught in a low-intensity confrontation - between armed groups and security services on the one hand and various criminal-political groupings, which use security services for “resolving” their conflicts of interest, on the other.

Since the late 1990s an armed underground, which fights federal and local security services, has been active in the republic. Members of this armed underground commit terrorist acts, attack military convoys, plant explosives, and kill security servicemen, military servicemen and prosecution officers. Not infrequently these attacks lead to casualties among the civilian population. In order to fight the armed groups, a large number of security servicemen are concentrated in the republic. They carry out “anti-terrorist operations” that are in grave violation of the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation and international law. They subject residential houses to indiscriminate fire, illegally detain or abduct people, illegally incarcerate them in places of preliminary detainment, use illegal methods of interrogation and investigation, such as torture, beatings, other forms of physical and psychological violence, and commit summary executions.

The contemporary armed conflict in Dagestan has a clear religious dimension. In the 1990s a new (to North Caucasus) religious movement with fundamentalist leaning started to spread in Dagestan, the supporters of which called themselves members of the 'jamaat salafia' or simply 'Muslims'. Law enforcement agencies usually term them as 'Wahhabists'.

The new religious movement usually spread through religious conflicts - inside Islamic communities in individual settlements as well as between the spiritual leaders - members of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Dagestan contra the leaders of the salafies. The Spiritual Board, sensing its dramatic loss of support in the republic, resorted to the state for protection of their interests. Since 1996, the security services started to exert pressure on the salafies. Thus, the leader of the Spiritual Board, Said Muhhamad Khadzi Abubakarov, introduced the slogan “Any Muslim, who kills a wahhabist will get to Paradise”. In response, the leader of salafies, Bagauddin Muhhamad, declared khizhra and with many of his followers moved to Chechnya.

After the insurgency of Shamil Basaev's group into Dagestan in August and September of 1999, on the wave of popular indignation, the People's Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan adopted the “Law on Banning Wahhabism and Other Extremist Activity on the territory of Dagestan” (September 22, 1999). This law freed the hands of the police. Now anyone who in the subjective judgement of police officers could qualify as a member of the “new trend” could become the victim of police brutality. A legal-criminal notion was confused with a religious notion - and the combat on terror turned into a combat on wahhabism as a religious movement. Veiled women would be called to police and interrogated, usually with threats. Their husbands and brothers immediately found themselves under special attention of the personnel of security services, risking being illegally detained, beaten and even disappearing.

After the events of 1999, the state was confronted with the necessity to hold responsible the participants and accomplices of the attack on Dagestan. The Prosecution was loaded with criminal cases regarding the participation in illegal armed groups (Article 208 of the criminal code of the RF) and the illegal handling of arms (Article 222 of the criminal code of the RF). Young men, suspected of participation in the attack of 1999, were detained, and usually little effort was made to carefully collect evidence of their guilt. As a rule, the court verdicts were based on “confessions” provided by fighters under torture, usually accompanied by the “humiliation of their male dignity” (=male rape). As a result, many young men were sentenced to several years in prison.

After 2002, the accused of the participation in the attack on Dagestan were being released from the different prisons and began to shoot dead “by the list” the personnel of security services who had tortured them. Most notorious for torture had been the republican “6th department” / Department for the Fight against Organized Crime (UBOP) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the District Department of Internal Affairs ROVD of the Kirov district; the personnel of these institutions most often became victims of terrorist acts and attacks by members of combatant groups. The most infamous was the group of Rasul Makasharipov, to which over a hundred of assassinations of security servicemen in Dagestan are attributed.

In 2004-2005, the republican security services started to realize that applying torture and degrading treatment to suspects could backfire. Many of them were killed or injured, others lived in fear of possible attacks.

Defense lawyers working with clients suspected of participation in armed groups claim that for this reason the tactics of the Dagestani security services has changed. The suspects are oftentimes being taken to Chechnya to be tortured, because there people can be tortured with impunity, moreover, one does not have to deal with the interference of defense lawyers. Those, who are cruelly tortured in Dagestan subsequently, as relatives put it “get lost”, i.e. they disappear without a trace.

It seems that in this way the security servicemen try to secure themselves from possible revenge by the victims of torture. According to lawyers and relatives of the kidnapped, in order to make an interrogation with torture easier, security services illegally detain or abduct their suspects. Unlike Chechnya and Ingushetia, where the kidnappers arrive to houses heavily armed, in masks and detain their suspects in front of numerous witnesses, in Dagestan these abductions seem to be carefully planned, take place without witnesses and other “unnecessary fuss”: the person gets out of the his house and never returns back.

In July 2007, Memorial Human Rights Center received applications from the relatives of disappeared people. All of the applicants claim that their dear ones were abducted by security services of Dagestan. In early summer, the relatives of disappeared and abducted residents of Dagestan created the public movement “Mothers of Dagestan”. The activists of this movement collect information on human rights abuses in Dagestan. According to them, around 20 people “disappeared” in Dagestan in 2007 so far. Since May, the activists of the movement carried out several protest actions in front of the Government building of the Republic of Dagestan, near the building of Department for the Combat on Organized Crime and the Building of the Ministry of Defense.


The Memorial Human Rights Center expresses its deep concern with the situation of human disappearances in Dagestan. Below are several cases of disappearances and abductions documented by Memorial members during a short fieldtrip to the Republic. You can send your inquiries about disappearances in Dagestan to:

The President of the Republic of Dagestan, Mukhu Aliev: +7 8722 67318
The Prosecutor of Dagestan, Igor Viktorovich Tkachev +7 8722 679513


SELECTED CASES

On August 19, 2004, Salman Zajnuddinovich Ramazanov, born in 1976, from the village of Rugudzha, Gunibsky district, Republic of Dagestan, disappeared. At the moment of the abduction he had been living in Makhachkala, ul. Khutinaeva 46.

On this day Ramazanov left his house at 17:30, saying he would be back before 20:00. At 19:30 he called his wife saying that he would be home later, somewhere in the night. Two hours after this call his telephone was switched off. His friends, with whom he was about to meet, called his wife, asking why he had not come to their meeting. As of July 30, 2007 there is no information on the whereabouts of Ramazanov. In the case of the disappearance of Ramazanov the Prosecution of the Kirovsky ROVD of the city of Makhachkala started a search operation under the № 458205.

In her address to the Human Rights center “Memorial” the wife of disappeared Ramazanov claims that pon December 2004 the chief of UBOP, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Dagestan, Magomed Abakarovich Magomedov had invited her and asked her to inform the police about the whereabouts of one of the friends of her husband. In turn, he promised, he would help to find Salman Ramazanov.

29 days before he disappeared, Ramazanov was released before the appointed time from the colony in the village of Tjube, Kormaskalinsk district, Dagestan, where he served a prison sentence for violating article 159 p. 3. He had been sentenced for 5 years, but was released after one year and four months. Since then he was afraid of a second detainment, so he was very cautious. Before he was sentenced his family often changed apartments. He lived at home but was very careful. In the beginning of May 2000, Ramazanov was arrested in the Kazbekov street, and his apartment was searched. He then was being held for four days and returned home, severely beaten. The family of Ramazan assumes he was persecuted for practising non-traditional Islam.

In the middle of July 2007, an UBOP officer approached the wife of Ramazanov, Farida Mirzamagomedova, asking her, whether friends of Salman were sometimes coming to their house, helping her and the children materially. He also wanted to know whether she had married again.
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On October 28, 2004 at 7:30 under unidentified circumstances Said Magomedovich Bashirov, born in 1978, resident of Makhachkala, Dachnaya street 72, disappeared. According to his mother, that day Bashirov went to the Northern bus station to receive money, which his colleagues sent him from Moscow and did not return back. Bashirov was a businessman, he owned a small factory for production of shoes and sold his produce.

Bashirov received money and then disappeared with his new car NIVA-Shevrole of silver color, state registration numbers Р605МB/26 РУС. At around 8 p.m. the cell-phone of Bashirov was turned off and he never contacted relatives again. Bashirov had his passport and money around 1.5.million rubles on him.

According to Bashirov's mother, the same day she went to Department for combat of organized crime (UBOP), where the head of the department, Magomed Magomedov said that her son was in UBOP and that he was being interrogated. In response to mother's question “How long will you keep him?”, Magomadov said “As long as we need”. Two weeks later, Magomedov told Bashirov's mother that her son was taken from UBOP and advised her to look for him in Chechnya.

On November 2, 2004, the Bashirov family turned in an application to the Prosecutor's Office about the disappearance of Said. The Prosecution of the Kirov district of Makhachkala instigated a criminal case № 458801 into murder (article 105 Criminal Code of the RF).

In response to the inquiry of the investigator of the Prosecution of Kirovsky District of Makhachkala on the whereabouts of Bashirov, the head of Criminal Militia of Makhachkala, major of militia S.M. Bataliev reported that his department had received operational information that S.M. Bashirov “was a member of extremist religious movement “Wahhabism”, and was involved in preparing an explosion of a gas-distributing station and planning attempts on the lives of militia personnel, which took place on 29.10.04 in the area of the Novy Kheshet district of Makhachkala, after which Bashirov escaped.”

Bashirov's mother claims that a month after the disappearance of Said she was visited by a young man named Radzab Gusejnov, who told her that he was detained by security servicemen and under torture forced to provide evidence against Said Bashirov. Gusejnov came to ask forgiveness of the mother because he had signed 'confessions' against Bashirov, but promised her to go to police with her or speak in court and withdraw these confessions. However, according to mother, Gusejnov did not have a chance to do so, he was pursued and joined the fighters and was killed during a military operation in Bujnaksk.

As of July 30, 2007 the investigation has not established the whereabouts of Bashirov. The mother's request to receive the register of her son's cell phone conversations was declined. The television refused to post an advertisement about his disappearance.

On January 28, 2005, the NTV channel broadcast a reportage about the liquidation by the military reconnaissance of a large military base of fighters in the Nozaj-Yurt District of Chechnya. Ilya Shabalkin, a representative of Regional Reconnaissance Headquarters in the North Caucasus announced that six bandits were killed in the course of the operation (Novoye Delo: 29.04.2005). However, investigation, carried out by independent republican newspaper “Novoye Delo” claims that on January 29 there took place an imitation of fight and “fighters” turned out to be the people abducted by security services, tortured, mutilated and then shot dead near the village of Zamaj-Yurt. The newspaper's investigation was supported by the evidence provided by the local residents, who washed the bodies, terribly distorted by torture, and the evidence by the head of Nozaj-Yurt ROVD Sultan Bilimkhanov. Among murdered the relatives identified two residents of Novosasitli village, Khasav'yurt district of Dagestan, 45 year-old Mukhtar Makhmudov and 28 year-old resident of the same village Makhach Khabibov (Novoe Delo: 29.04.2005). This case has received much attention and coverage by independent Dagestani media.

Mother of Said Bashirov visited Zamaj-Yurt and managed to obtain a photograph of the murdered of poor quality. She is sure that under Number 3 in the mass grave at the cemetery of Zamaj-Yurt is her son. However, the Prosecutor of Nozaj-Yurt District refuses to provide the mother with the photos of the buried bodies.
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On November 23, 2004 under unidentified circumstances Kasin Shakhbanovich Gasanov, born in 1975, resident of the village Vikhli, Kulin district of Dagestan disappeared. At the moment of abduction, he was a resident of Makhachkala, district of Imam Shamil avenue, 56 ap.12. Kasin Gasanov is a World Champion in wrestling Ushu-San'da, and did not have any links to radical Islamic groups.

That day Kasin left home at 9 a.m. in the morning and headed towards the parking ground to pick up his car. He never reached the parking space. The cleaning woman in Gasanov's block of flats said that several days before the disappearance very early in the morning unidentified young men were playing cards at the entrance to Gasanov's stairwell. The cleaning woman was surprised that unknown youth would be playing cards at 6 o'clock in the morning in their yard. Gasanovs think that these people could be possibly involved in abduction of Kasin Gasanov.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Dagestan instigated a criminal case № 4021254 into abduction of Gasanov, article 126.p.1 of the Criminal Code RF.

According to the relatives of Gasanov the disappearance of Kasin was preceded by a conflict of their family with ex Vice-prime minister of Dagestan, the head of Retirement Fund of the Russian Federation in Dagestan, the leader of the Lak-community, A.M. Amutinov.

Gasan Gasanov, the brother of disappeared, testified in a criminal case into an attempt on the life of A.M. Amutinov that since August 2001 that he, Gasan Gasanov, worked as an inspector at the Retirement Fund. Initially he had good relations with A.M. Amutinov, but these relations deteriorated when Amutinov proposed Gasan Gasanov to find a person who could carry out assassination of several political figures for substantial sums of money through his sportsman-brother, Kasin Gasanov. Gasanovs did not want to do it. When Amutinov realized that Gasan Gasanov was not going to accept his proposal, he decided to kill Gasanov as an unnecessary witness. In August 2004 there was an attempt on the life of Gasan Gasanov, and as a result he received a firearm injury. By a lucky coincidence, the bullet missed his heart and hit him under the shoulder.

A.M. Amutinov tried to visit Gasan Gasanov in the hospital, however, the latter did not want to see him. Gasan's brother, Kasin did not let Amutinov into the ward and publicly accused him of commissioning an attempt on the life of his brother. According to Gasanovs, Amutinov left the hospital in fury, and promised to “teach a lesson to this puppy” (Kasin). Subsequently, Gasanovs were approached by people from Amutinov's circles and warned them that the brothers were in danger and advised them to leave the republic.

On November 3 2004 there was an attempt on the life of Amutinov, at the corner of Bogatyreva and Yaragskogo streets. At the site of the explosion, Amutinov announced that the Gasanov brothers had organized the attack. However, the brothers were never called to the Prosecutor's office, were never interrogated as suspects, although from the materials of the preliminary investigation (Case number 2-11.07 of April 5 2007), investigator Marat Saidov clearly gives assignment to detain, interrogate and carry our search in the houses of the Gasanov brothers. The Gasanov brothers lived at home, they did not hide from investigation. 20 days after an attempt on the life of Amutinov, Kasin Gasanov disappeared.

According to the father of disappeared, who was searching for his son for over two years, a number of officials, including Musa Mirzaev, deputy head of UBOP MVD RD, Rashid Isaev, head of the criminal police, Sheikhmagomed Sheikhmagomedov, deputy head of the Sovetsky ROVD in Makhachkala, repeatedly told him that his son was in the hands of security services. And the Gasanov family insists that Kasin was abducted on the order of Amuchi Amutinov and his brother Artur Amutinov, an FSB officer.

As of July 30, 2007 the whereabouts of Kasin Shakhbanovich Gasanov remain unknown.
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On December 18, 2004, Malik Manafovich Shurpaev, born in 1979, disappeared under unclear circumstances, resident of Makhachkala, Kotorov street, 67.

On this day Shurpaev went at 12 a.m. to work at the technical station, where he was technically treating glass. He left his work at 6 p.m. and went home. But he did not make it to his home. He had with him a sporting bag and about 20 Rubels. He had left his passport in his apartment.

On March 19, 2005 a person had contacted Shurpaev family. He told Shurpaevs that he had spent time in jail together with a Chechen named Alavat. This Chechen had asked him to look for the family of Shurpaev and told them that Malik had spent four days with him in one cell in Chechnya.

The Prosecutor's office of the Leninsky district of Makhachkala, on April 29, 2005 started a criminal case (№ 501140). Answering the request of the mother of Shurpaev, the department UUR of the ministry of internal affairs of Dagestan told her that Malik had been arrested by the security forces of the Chechen Republic. To find out the whereabouts of her son she was recommended to approach the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Prosecutor's office of Chechnya.

As of July 30, 2007 the whereabouts of Shurpaev remain unknown.
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On July 8, 2005, at about 12 o clock in the night, Kerim Gasanovich Shajkhaev, born in 1979, resident of the village of Tsovkra-2, Kulinski District, Republic of Dagestan, disappeared in the city of Makhachkala, in the area of Timirjazeva street. On this day he spent time in the cafe in the Sovetskaja street, near the ZUM, with Dibirov, Shajkhaeva and Nukhova from his home village. At 10:30 p.m. Shajkhaev took a mini-bus to get to the apartment, where he spent several days. The address of the apartment is ul. Timirjazeva 3a, ap. 19. It had been rented by his older brother of Kerim, Arslan Shajkhaev. At about midnight Dibirov called and asked whether Kerim had arrived to his apartment. Kerim answered that he soon would be in the apartment. But on the next day he did not show up at work (he had promised to help in a construction project). His colleagues called him, but his phone was switched off. His friends from his village contacted the police and other security agencies, but they all denied having arrested Kerim.

One week before Kerim Shajkhaev disappeared, a criminal investigation against his older brother, Arslan Gasanovich Shajkhaev, 1974, was started. He was suspected to be a member of a criminal group, which several times had attacked the police. After five days, on July 13th, 2005, Arslan was killed during a special operation in the city of Makhachkala in the Oskar Street, 119. Armed persons, about 7-10 people, entered the house of a friend of Arslan Shajkhaev, where he was with his family at the moment. They shouted “Take away children” and shot at Shajkhaev. There was, however, no criminal investigation against Kerim Shajkhaev underway, his relatives think that he was abducted by security agencies who wanted to know the whereabouts of his older brother.

From people living in the house at Timirjazeva 3a, three relatives found out that some days before Kerim went missing a person had been constantly waiting for someone near their house. After the murder of Arslan Shajkhaev, this person together with other unknown persons, came in a VAZ 2107 car with the license plate A 436TH05, and entered the apartment, opening the door with a key. As there had been only one key to the apartment, which had been with Kerim Shajkhaev, the relatives assume that they got the key from the missing Kerim. Kerim had come to Makhachkala several days before he disappeared looking for work. Kerim had just finished the state university of Dagestan.

On August 9th 2005 the Prosecutor's Office of Sovetskiy district in Makhachkala instigated a criminal case № 502920 into disappearance of Kerim Shajkhaev, article 105, “murder”. As of July 30th, 2007, his whereabouts remain unknown. After three months the investigation was suspended.
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On July 17, 2005, at about 6 a.m., personnel of the center “T” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, arrested Salikh Mukhumaevich Saidov, born in 1979, from Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan, in Moscow (ul. 13th Parkovaja, 34, building 1, ap. 36). Besides Saidov they arrested three more persons, who were with him in the apartment. They transported the arrested persons to the police station near the metro station “Schelkovskaya”, three of them were brought into one room, but Saidov was led away. The three persons in the room were released the same evening, but no one so far saw Saidov. As of July 30, 2007 his whereabouts are unknown.

The head of the department against organized crime of the Eastern administrative region (OBOP KM UVD VAO) of the city of Moscow, V.P. Kochernin, told Saidov's mother that her son “had been arrested on July 17th, 2005 at a request of the Prosecutor's office of the Republic of Dagestan and had been handed over to the initiator of the arrest”. To find out what had happened to her son, the officer recommended the mother to turn to Prosecutor's office of Dagestan.

The Prosecutor's office of the Republic of Dagestan confirms that “in the course of investigating criminal case № 558754 into the fact of assault on the life of personnel of police it had been necessary to interrogate S.M. Saidov as witness. According to available information, Saidov had left the Republic of Dagestan for Moscow. Therefore, on July 14 2005 a statement was issued to bring witness Salikh Mukhumaevich Saidov to Dagestan, where he was to be questioned as witness”.“ However he was not brought to Dagestan, as Mirzabalaev M.N., the head of the investigation department of the Republican Prosecutor's office confirms. “As of today the statement has not been implemented, i.e. Saidov has not been brought to the investigation department of the Republican Prosecution and there had been no criminal investigation from the side of the Dagestan Prosecution against Saidov.

However this is contradicted by the words of V.I. Ripa, second chief of the center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Republic. He responded to the inquest of the lawyer of Mrs Saidova that “in compliance with the instruction of the investigator of the police department on murder and banditism of Prosecution of Republic of Dagestan, E.M. Abdullaev” on July 17, 2005 “ S.M Saidov was delivered to the Prosecution of Dagestan (Makhachkala) for investigation regarding the criminal case № 558754.

In January during a shootout between security servicemen and armed groups, the brother of Salikh Saidov, Rustam Saidov, was killed. That is why the Prosecutor's office was interested in interrogating Salikh Saidov. The second brother of Salikh, Abdurahman Saidov, was also killed during the shootout with the security services on September 11, 2005. According the Prosecutor's office of Dagestan, he had been wounded and killed himself with a grenade, as he wanted to prevent being arrested..

The mother of Saidov claims that via unofficial channels she found out that Salikh Saidov had been kept in Chechnya, in the ORB-2 in Grozny. She was offered a video recording of her son's interrogation for $4000 US dollars.

The relatives of S.M. Saidov do not know of any criminal investigation regarding the abduction of S.M. Saidov.
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On October 4, 2006 at about 6 p.m., Zajnudin Bagaudinovich Gereev, born in 1979, was abducted from his home in the city of Khasyv'yurt, Tuturbieva street 123, Dagestan.

At the moment of his abduction, Gereev had talked with friends near his home. Suddenly a “Gazel” mini-bus drove up. It had the state license plate 226ХН05 RUS. Unidentified security servicemen with and without uniform jumped out (about 10 persons) and beat the young men with clubs and kicked them. They then took Zajnudin Gereev with their “Gazel” car away in the direction of the bus station.

The Prosecutor's office of Khasav'yurt District instigated a criminal case № 610508 into abduction of Gereev (article 126 - “abduction”).

As of July 30, 2007 the whereabouts of Zajnudin Bagaudinovich Gereev remain unknown.
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On October 11, 2006 after 8 p.m. under unknown circumstances disappeared Magomedov Alevutdin Dzalalutdinovich, born in 1956, and his relative Musaev Arslan Musaevich, born in 1976, residents of Babayurt. On that day Magomedov and Musaev went to buy potatoes by car YAZ-21014, state registration numbers В 550 СХ05. Having bought potatoes at around 8 p.m. they headed towards home. As of July 30, 2007 the whereabouts of Magomedov and Musaev remain unknown.


Magomedov is a handicapped person, as a result of gangrene his both legs and arms have been amputated. He is very religious and was deeply involved in studying Islamic literature. In November 2005 in the area of Germenchik village he was detained with his 20 year old daughter Ajna, who was driving Magomedov's car. At the moment of detention the father and daughter were heading towards their native village for the Kurban-Bajram holiday. During the search the security servicemen found three F-1 grenades, which, as Ajna Magomedova claims, had been planted in their car by the servicemen.

In her application to Memorial Ajna Magomedova states that she and her father were delivered to Babayurt ROVD, where she was illegally detained for five days, subjected to severe beatings and torture. Thus, Ajna Magomadova was beaten on the head, strangled, her teeth were pooled, her hair torn, she was threatened with rape. Her father was tortured in front of her, she was told that he would “get lost” in Khankala unless she signs 'confessions'. On the forth day Magomedova signed all the papers, on the 6th day she was released from the district police station. She was not able to stand on her feet on her own, and was hospitalised. There are medical documents proving her injuries. Magomedov was transferred to the militia station of Shelkovskoj district of Chechnya. Magomedovs claim that security servicemen extorted money from them for the release of Alevutdin Magomedov. The family sold their flat and paid 25000 USD to the officer of investigating department of Leninsky district Bakhmudov Magomed. On March 3, 2006 Magomedov was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison (conditionally), articles 222 p.1, 208 p.2. of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Magomedova Ajna was sentenced to 2 years in prison (conditionally), articles 208.p.2., 33 p.5.

Ajna Magomedova and her sister Albina turned to various institutions demanding the instigation of criminal case into illegal actions of security servicemen and extortion of money. After a check up of application by Magomedov's lawyer on September 20, 2006 the Republican Prosecution instigated a criminal case into illegal actions of personnel of Babayurt police station, article 285 p.1 Criminal Code of Russia. Prosecutor' Office of Sovetsky District of Makhachkala instigated a criminal case into the disappearance of Magomedov, article 105 of the Criminal Code of Russia, art.105 (murder). The dead body of Musaev was subsequently found in Kazbekovskij district of Dagestan.

On January 10, 2007, Ramazan Magomedovich Kurbanov, born in 1980, resident of Astrakhan went missing in Makhachkala, Dagestan under unclear circumstances. On December 26, 2006, he had left for Kizilyurt to visit his parents. On January 9, Ramazan was in Makhachkala with his second wife at the address Perova street 11, Separatorniy district. From there he went to his parents in Kizil-Yurt. But he never arrived to the home of his parents.

The relatives contacted all security services of the city, but they all informed them that their relative had not been arrested. However, persons working for UBOP, sold the testimony allegedly provided by Kurbanov for 10.000 rubles. According to this paper, Kurbanov had made his testimony on January 10, 2007, to major M.O. Asjukevich of UBOP (department on organized crime) of the Ministry of internal affairs of Dagestan. In his testimony Kurbanov acknowledges his participation in a criminal group, having prepared terrorist acts on the territory of the Buinaksk region of the Republic of Dagestan. According to the relatives some biographical data are correct so it indeed was Ramazan, who had made his acknowledgments, but apparently under physical leverage.

On May 25, 2007, the Prosecutor of Sovetskiy district of Makhachkala started a criminal investigation (Article 126 p.2, abduction).

As of July 30, 2007 there is no information regarding the whereabouts of Ramazan Magomedovich Kurbanov.
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On March 16, 2007, under unclear circumstances, Saipulla Akhmedovich Ibragimov, born in 1985, from the city of Khasavyurt, Salavatov street, 101, disappeared. On this day Ibragimov after lunch went to the market, where his cousin was working. According to his cousin, Saipulla went home after 5 p.m. Actually he never got to his home. This day his relatives did not search for him assuming he had stayed overnight with his sister, as he frequently did. The next day, security servicemen searched the container of the trade of Ibragimov's mother, Zagidat. The container was located on the territory of the municipal market place. It had not been used for 2 years and it was closed. The relatives assume that the search had been done by security servicemen from Makhachkala. On the roof of the container they found rusty cartridges. The container had been searched without a court warrant, without informing the owners of the container. One of the witnesses was the chief of the market, who did not want to make any comments. The Ibragimovs did not see any protocol of the search. No one came to search the Ibragimov's house.

According to the relatives, officers from the RUBOP, Abdurzak and Raip, had visited Sajpulla several times before he went missing and had led him away for an interrogation. They apparently had offered him the opportunity to work for them as an informer, for 15 000 Rubles / months. But Saipulla declined. They replied that his unwillingness to work for them might cause him problems. After the latest interrogation, his mother sent him to the village of Kupa, where he had been living for 4 months. But then she invited him to live with her as she felt very lonesome. After one month Saipulla went missing. The relatives assume that he was abducted by officers of UBOP of the ministry of internal affairs of Dagestan.

As of July 30, 2007, there is no information on the whereabouts of Saipulla Akhmedovich Ibragimov.
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On April 25, 2007 Ramaz Abutalibovich Dibirov, born in 1981, and living in the city of Makhachkala, Prospekt Akushinskogo, 7-th linija, 20 went missing under unknown circumstances.

On this evening Dibirov was to meet his bride Karina Dadaeva. At about 8 p.m. he brought her home to the address Petra Pervogo street 40, app. 23. He told her that he would transfer money to her cell-phone account. However, he did not get home and he did not transfer this money. The same night, at 3:31, there was a telephone call for Karina from the mobile telephone of Ramaz. Karina heard some shouting of men, among them her husband-to-be.

On the morning of April 26, Karina called Ramaz, but Ramaz did not answer. The signal went through, but was disconnected. During lunch time there was a call from the telephone on Ramaz. Karina heard two men discussing what they should do with the cell-phone (Ramaz had two telephones, Megafon and Beeline. Only Karina knew the second telephone number. Apparently they had talked about the first telephone). One of them asked: “what to do with the telephone and the sim-card?” and the other answered that he should take out the sim-card and switch off the telephone. After this both telephones were switched off. As of July 30, 2007, there is no information on the whereabouts of Ramaz Abutalibovich Dibirov.

On April 23, 2006, Ramaz Dibirov had gone missing in a similar way. Within several days the relatives searched for him everywhere, but to no avail. On May 2, 2006, the investigator of the Prosecutor of the Sovetskiy district of Makhachkala invited his mother for an interview and told her that her son had been arrested on the suspicion of belonging to a criminal group and having organized terrorist acts on the territory of Dagestan. The case was transferred to the court of the Sovetskiy district of the city of Makhachkala. Dibirov was acquitted and released in the courtroom.

According to Dibirov's mother, for the first 10 days he was held in the building of UBOP of the ministry of internal affairs of the republic of Dagestan, where they had tortured him with electric shocks, brutally kicked, beat him with clubs, with plastic bottles filled with water on his head, junctions, in the groin, put a pistol into his mouth and pulled the trigger, threatened to rape him and asked him to confess crimes. While in custody, he had lost 40 kg, could not stand alone on his feet, and had a haemorrhage in the lungs. Dibirov remembered the faces of those who had tortured him.

According to relatives of Dibirov, a few days before he went missing several cars, among them a Gazel 41300, a Zhiguli 99, a steel colored 425 AK, a white Zhiguli 99 - a 386 UR, and a red car had been regularly seen near his house, with unknown servicemen in the cars. On the day he went missing, April 25, 2007, Dibirov told his bride that “they” kept following him. He also said that he did not wish to be held again by “them”, meaning the UBOP.

Ramaz Dibirov is very ill. He has tuberculosis on both lungs with complications and regular haemorrhoids. His mother claims that before disappearance he had been treated at home, he mostly had to stay in bed and only a short time before he had disappeared officers of RUBOP, among them Rashidkhanov Rashidkhan Omardibirovich, had asked in the mosque, why he showed up so rarely in the mosque and in the city as well. His mother is convinced that the security structures believe that he is an Amir of a local Djamaat.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Leninskiy district of Makhachkala opened a criminal investigation № 701605 into the disappearance of Dibirov, Article 125, 2a (abduction).
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On April 26, 2007 at 20:00, Vladimir Yurevich Vialov, born in 1975, resident of Bujnaksk, disappeared under unknown circumstances. On the evening of the disappearance Vialov went to the pharmacy near his house in the Mikrorayon “Druzhba”, but he did not return home.

Before these events Vialov, an ethnic Russian who had converted to Islam in 1990s, had served a prison term for killing a representative of the Prosecutor's office, Bulatov. The mother of Vialov, who did not approve of her son's decision to convert to Islam, decided to scare him and told the police that her son had converted to another religion and was contacting suspicious persons. After this he was arrested and accused of murder. Having spent 7 years in prison he returned home just a few months before his disappearance. One month before disappearing he married and worked as a construction worker.

As of July 30, 2007 there is no information on the whereabouts of Vladimir Yurevich Vialov. In the case of the disappearance of Vialov, the Prosecutor's office of Bujnaksk started to study the case according to articles 144 and 145 of the criminal procedural code and on June 4, 2007 decided not to instigate a criminal case. After studying the matter for a second time, on June 28 2007, the Prosecutor' office of the city of Bujnaksk started a criminal case № 703109 (Article 105, p. 1 criminal code of Russia, murder).
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It is assumed that on April 27-29, 2007 Muamar Magomedovich Mammaev, born in 1982, resident of Makhachkala, Magomeda Gadzhieva street 71, disappeared under unclear circumstances. On that day he went to the address bureau as he needed a new passport. In the evening his father called him. Muamar told him that he was about to leave with his friends for Kaspisk and would return home the next day. Muammar talked in a strange manner, with a low voice. The father suspected that something might be wrong and asked Muammar, whether everything was ok. Muammar answered that he was fine. From this moment the cell-phone of Muammar has been switched off, he had not contacted his family, but on April 29, a friend of his received a text message from his cell-phone.

According to his relatives, Mammaev had been previously held by security services. On April 22, 2006 he had been arrested by officers from UBOP, Makhachkala after he agreed to park the car of Ramaz Dibirov at a parking lot. In the course of 10 days he had been severely beaten and tortured. As a result he signed a “confession”, which says that he was part of a criminal group and had helped the rebels. Officially the arrest of Muamar was sanctioned by the court of the Sovetskiy rayon of the city of Makhachkala on May 2nd 2006. He had received one year of conditional sentence (art. 316)

As of July 30, 2007 there is no information on the whereabouts of Muamar Magomedowich Mammaev. The Prosecutor's Office of Kirovsky district of Makhachkala declined instigation of a criminal case into the disappearance of Mammaev.

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On April 26, 2007 at 3 p.m. presumably in the yard of his house at Imama Shamilja avenue, 4, Isa Alimpashaevich Isaev, born in 1982, living in the city of Makhachkala, disappeared under unknown circumstances.

According to relatives, at about 2 p.m. somebody had called and asked Isaev to come outside. The mother thought her son knew the caller. Isa told her that he would leave the house and return shortly. Isaevs were repairing the house and Isa was planning to go buy new toilet, a plumber was called to install it. The family was renovating their flat, because on May 15 Isaevs were planning to make an official proposal for Isa's marriage.

According to the mother of the disappeared, Svetlana Ibragimovna Isaeva, at about 3 p.m. a flat in the neighbouring block of flats at Imama Shamilya avenue, 6, was being stormed. The neighbourhood was completely blockaded, among them the house of the Isaevs, presumably by officers from the Sovetskiy ROVD and officers from the UBOP. The participants in the operation were uniformed and masked. In the apartment, which was of interest to security servicemen, no one was found. Jarakhmed Jarakhmedov, police officer from the Sovetskiy police station, told the mother that no one had been arrested during the operation. When Isaeva was leaving the house at about 4 p.m., the blockade had stopped. The mother tried to call the son, but the telephone had been switched off.

At about 9 p.m. the son called her. He could not speak, as the mother accidentally had discontinued the telephone contact. When she tried to call him back immediately, his telephone had been switched off again. The same evening he had tried to call his older brother, but he did not have his telephone with him. He could only see on the display that his brother had tried to call him. After this there were no more calls or other forms of contacts from Isaev.

On May 17, 2007 the Prosecutor's Office of the Sovetskiy district of Makhachkala declined instigation of criminal investigation into disappearance of I.A. Isaev. On 29.05.07 after a second check-up the Prosecutor's Office instigated a criminal case №702839 article 126, 1.criminal code of Russia, abduction).

In 2003, Isaev was sentenced to 5 years on probation by the court of the Leninskiy district. In 2006, UBOP officers arrested and interrogated Isaev for three days. They did not apply illegal methods against him. According to Isaev's mother, in the course of 3 years, UBOP officer Soltanmurad Gebekov, regularly contacted Isaev, called him, offered him to meet in a cafe. In the course of the last 3-4 months the son told his mother that the security services were keeping an eye on him and urged him to cooperate with them.

On June 10, 2007 at 3 p.m. Svetlana Isaeva and relatives of other abducted persons, Magomed Mammaev, Madina Mammaeva, Gulnara Rustamova and Shakhrazada Dibirova met with Imammutdin Temirbulatov, chief of the Department on combat on terrorism and abductions UBOP, Ministry of Interior of Dagestan. Temirbulatov told them that Mammaev, Dibirov and Isaev had been in UBOP at some point. He asked the relatives to bring him photographs of the missing persons so that he could give the “security servicemen” the photographs asking them to find out their whereabouts.

On July 10, 2007 the vice-chair of the Security Council under the President of the Republic of Dagestan, G.M. Gusejnov, in a telephone conversation without witnesses told the mother of Isaev that her son was being held in Gudermes, Chechen Republic in the ORB-2 and that a criminal investigation was started against him. When she asked on what articles the criminal investigation against her son would be launched Gusejnov replied that she should contact the Prosecutor of the Republic of Dagestan.

As of July 30, 2007 the whereabouts of Isa Alimpashaevitch Isaev remain unknown.
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On May 14, 2007, Rashid Magomedovich Batirov, born in 1976, resident of Leninkent district of Makhachkala, temporarily residing in a rented apartment, disappeared. On that day Rashid received a text message from the cell-phone of his friend Sultanali Aslagereev, asking him to meet. On the evening of the 4th Rashid left the house, telling his wife that he would stay with his friends overnight. On the 15th he spoke with his wife for the last time telling her that he was about to leave for a meeting and that shortly his telephone would stop functioning, as the accumulator was weak. Soon the telephone was switched off. After this there was no more contact with Batirov.

The father of Batirov writes in his application to Memoria Human Rights Center, that on May 25, 2007 a close friend of the Batirov family, an UBOP officer, had told them that Rashid was being held in the UBOP, where he was accused of murdering an OMON officer. They apparently had found with him the ID card of the killed person and under torture he had confessed to this crime. The family also informed Memorial about details of what was called the confession of Rashid. According to this confession, he had ordered a cab with his criminal friends. The cab driver, who turned out to be an OMON officer, was killed by them. Having killed him they had, according to this confession, stuck 50 rubles into his mouth.

It was found out that Sultanali Aslangireev was abducted by the security services, who had kept him for more than two weeks at an unknown location. According to his lawyer, subsequently they released Aslangireev in the Novolaksiy forest. At the moment a criminal case against Aslangireev has been started.

The Prosecution of Kirovsky district of Makhachkala declined to instigate a criminal case into the matter of disappearance of Batirov.