Human Rights Center «Memorial»

A Conveyer of Violence

Human rights violations during anti-terrorist operations in the Republic of Ingushetia

Contents

Introduction 3

1. The dynamics of human rights violations in the course of "special operations" in the Republic of Ingushetia: 1999 — 2004 4

1.1. 2002: First abductions and "disappearances" 4

Abduction and murder of D. Bataev and M. Tokaev, February 2002 5

Abduction and murder of Naip Idigov, February 2002 5

Abduction of S. Sainaroev, October 2002 7

Special operation of Kadyrov's security services in the city Malgobek, November 2002 7

Abduction statistics for Ingushetia in 2002 8

1.2. 2003: Escalation of violence 8

Abduction statistics for Ingushetia in 2003 8

Detention of the Shokarov brothers; the death of one and the disappearance of the other, January 2003 8

Attack of boeviks1 in the first half of 2003 9

"Cleanup" operations in the villages Arshty and Chemulga, the abduction and murder of U. Zabiev, June 2003 10

"Special operation" in the polyclinic station in stanitsa Ordzhonikidzovskaja, August 2003 10

Abduction and disappearance of Bashir Mutsolgov, December 2003 11

1.3. 2004: "Chechenization" of Ingushetia 12

Abduction statistics for Ingushetia in 2004 12

1 Fighters who oppose the federal and local security services in the North Caucasus

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Abduction of A. Medov, June 2004 13

Attack of boeviks on Ingushetia on the night from 21 to 22 June, 2004 16

"Cleanup" operation of IDP settlements, June 2004 17

Abduction of six residents of the city Karabulak, July 2004 17

Illegal detention of the Velkhiev brothers, their torture, and the murder of one of them, July 2004 20

Murder of Beslan Arapkhanov, July 2004 21

Complaint of Defense Lawyer of suspect Solsbek Gelogaev, August 2004 21

Adbuction and disappearance of Adam Bersanov December 2004 21

2. Methods used at the inquests and investigations of residents of the Republic of Ingushetia suspected of terrorism and of participation in illegal armed units 22

3. Ingushetia in 2005: Examples of detention operations on individuals suspected of terrorist activities and participation in illegal armed units; investigations of crimes allegedly committed by them 26

3.1. Illegal detention and death of Adam Gorchkhanov 27

3.2. Case of Adam Parchiev 28

3.3. Case of Magomed Khamkhoev 30

3.4. Case of Magomed Tsakhigov and Alikhan Ibragimov 35

3.5. Case of Bekkhan Gireev 39

3.6. Case of Khasan Egiev 40

3.7. Case of Gelani Kholukhoev 41

3.8. Five statements from those accused of participation in the events of the night of 21 — 22 July, 2004 42

3.9. Illegal detention and disappearance of the Kodzoev brothers 49

3.10. Illegal detention and "disappearance" of Magomed Merzhoev 50

4. Recommendations 51

List of Abbreviations 54

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Introduction

The first version of this report was published in July 2005.

The draft of this report was presented to the President of the Russian Federation 20 July, 2005, at meeting of the President with the President of the RF's Council on assistance for the development of institutes of civil society and human rights, among the materials of the Council.

In October 2005 small additions have been made to the report.

Abductions continued in the fall of 2005 in Ingushetia; relatives of the abductees turned to human rights center Memorial in Nazran. The majority of the abducted were subsequently “found” by lawyers within a few days in provisional detention facilities in North Osetia or Ingushetia, as a rule, having already managed to confess to committing terrorism-related crimes. One person died from his injuries received in detainment. Two abductees disappeared without a trace.

In 2005, judicial decisions on indictments in terrorist activities were made for several cases which Memorial had been tracking since 2004. Evidence of the guilt of the accused comprised, on the whole, their own confessions regarding their criminal acts, which were made during preliminary investigations. According to the testimony of lawyers and the statements of relatives, these people had been cruelly tortured. In addition, Memorial received six statements from the detention locations — from the accused themselves — wherein it was described in detail how the young people were subjected to torture and humiliation until they signed "voluntary confessions".

"Who will I become? How will I live in this country if you sentence me, without evidence of my guilt, to such a long prison term for crimes I did not commit?" asked 27-year-old Magomed Khamkhoev in his closing statement in court. Khamkhoev was sentenced to 10 years — in the opinion of his lawyer Umar Khayauri, chairman of the 21st Century board of lawyers in the Republic of Ingushetia, Khamkhoev was sentenced despite the complete absence of an evidentiary basis for his having committed the crime.

The evidence collected in this report compels us to demand an examination of the activities of law-enforcement agencies and the provisional detention facilities in Ingushetia and North Osetia. It is clear that a conveyer of violence has been installed in the North Caucasus which comprises law-enforcement agencies, the special forces, the inoperative office of the public prosecutor, the courts which are incapable of revealing falsification, and even some lawyers. Innocent people are inevitably lost to the machine while the real criminals go unpunished.

Memorial warns that the existing system is incapable of effectively fighting terrorism and will, on the contrary, beget the most horrendous forms of terror.

Memorial does not call into question the necessity of the fight against terror. However, this fight must be conducted in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation and the international obligations of the Russian Federation to observe human rights.

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1. The Dynamics of Rights Violations Practices in the Course of Counter-terrorist Operations in the Republic of Ingushetia: 1999 — 2004

Ingushetia is a small north Caucasian republic2 bordering North Osetia to the west, Chechnya to the east, and Georgia to the south. Until 1991 Ingushetia was a member of the Chechen-Ingush Republic of the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic). An Ingush Republic as a member of the Russian Federation was proclaimed on 15 September, 1991, in a congress of deputies of Ingushetia from all levels. When a de facto independent separatist regime was installed in Grozny, residents of Ingushetia confirmed in a referendum (30 November — 1 December, 1991) their decision to remain a member of the Russian Federation and to build their own republican state on the basis of the Constitution of the RSFSR. With a 75% turnout, 90% of voters decided in favor of the referendum. Six months later on 4 June, 1992, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR approved the law "On the Formation of the Republic of Ingushetia as a member of the RSFSR".

Cultural, economic, and family ties with Chechnya, however, remained. On 11 December, 1994, at the start of the first Chechen war, when federal forces were moving through Ingushetia to Chechnya, residents of the republic blocked the roads trying to prevent their progress. When the war had become an inevitable reality, the Ingush took in hundreds of thousands of forced migrants from neighboring republics.

At the very beginning of the second Chechen war, on 25 September, 1999, general Vladimir Shamanov, commander of the "West" group of federal forces, ordered that administrative borders of subjects of the federation contiguous with Chechnya be closed to the people fleeing the shelling and bombing. In defiance of this order, the President of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, opened the border, and Ingushetia took in about 300 thousand migrants from the Chechen Republic.

Because the very presence of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ingushetia testified to the adverse situation in Chechnya, the federal government brought pressure to bear on them from the very beginning, attempting to force their return. The efforts did not meet with any particular success. The absence of security in Chechnya kept IDPs in Ingushetia — more than two years after the war began, their numbers were about 150 thousand. Despite the hard living conditions, they felt relatively secure.

The frequent "cleanup" operations did not lead to ‘the pacification’ of Chechnya. Federal agencies found an explanation for this — apparently, boeviks were sheltering beyond the borders of the republic — and insisted on the expansion of the zone of "counterterrorism operations" to Ingushetia. However, Ingush authorities successfully resisted these attempts until the end of 2001, thereby supporting the stability of the republic.

1.1. 2002: First Abductions and "Disappearances"

2 Area 36 000 square kilometers; population according to 2002 census 472 500, of these a little more than 300 000 are permanent residents, while the rest are forced migrants from the Chechen Republic (at the time of the census, about 150 000 people) and the suburban area of Northern Osetia

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The situation began to change in 2002. Abductees, most of them IDPs from Chechnya, disappeared in the course of the "special operations" which had begun in Ingushetia. The bodies of some of the "disappeared" were later discovered on the territory of the Chechen Republic. In the majority of cases, the circumstances of abduction directly implicated representatives of the federal law-enforcement agencies in criminal acts.

We do not assert that none of the abductees in Ingushetia did not participate in the armed units resisting the Russian state. However, in a civilized state, suspects can be detained or arrested only on a lawful basis, investigations should be carried out within procedural norms, and the guilt of the accused can be determined only by a court. Otherwise justice is replaced by arbitrariness and reprisals, the victims of which are invariably innocent people.

"Special operations" which at times became large-scale "cleanup" operations began in IDP camps around the middle of 2002. This practice was part of a campaign to stimulate the out-migration of IDPs back to Chechnya. In some cases these operations were provoked by the actions of boeviks. For example, the first "cleanup" operation we know of took place in the IDP camp at a Milk Farm (MTF) in the city Karabulak on 6 June, 2002, after the murder of three Ingush police officers. In the majority of cases, however, the motivation for the special operations and abductions remained unclear.

The abduction and murder of the IDPs Danilbek Bataev and Murad Tokaev is a typical episode for 2002.

On 4 February, 2002, in the city Malgobek, armed men in masks burst into building no. 4 on Zyazikova street. They seized Danilbek Bataev, born 1981, and Murad Tokaev, born 1980, IDPs from Chechnya living there, and took them away in an unknown direction. The armed men did not present any documentation, but did administer a beating to Laura Bataeva, Danilbek's wife, who attempted to prevent the abduction of her husband.

On 9 April, 2002, the corpses of Danilbek Bataev and Murad Tokaev were discovered about 1 km from the position of Russian forces, in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny in the area of Tashkala. They had had their throats cut, their faces were covered with tape, and their hands were bound behind their backs.

The only instance of a person's disappearance in this period for which we can conjecture a motive for the actions of the federal authorities is the abduction and murder of Naip Idigov.

Around midnight (24:00) on 14 February, 2002, a house on Zarechnoi street in the town Karabulak, where Naip Idigov was living as a forced migrant, was surrounded by a large group of armed men in camouflage and masks. They burst into the house, seized Naip Idigov, and took him outside, having administered beatings to his wife and (female) cousin, who attempted to interfere. The men traveled in several cars along the Rostov — Baku route, taking Idigov with them through the Kavkaz-13 checkpoint into Chechnya.

On 15 and 16 February Russian mass media reported that the boevik Naip Idigov had been killed while trying to install a landmine on the territory of Chechnya in the Achkhoi-Martanovsky district. From that moment, relatives searched for Idigov dead or alive. Referring to media

3 The large-scale Kavkaz-1 checkpoint is located on the administrative border of Ingushetia and Chechnya and is operated by federal authorities, including the FSB. No car traveling on the road into or out of Chechnya can pass without inspection.

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reports, they turned to the office of the public prosecutor of the Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia and to the public prosecutor of the Chechen Republic; however, they could not obtain any information concerning either the whereabouts of Indigov or the source of the reports of his death.

The Human rights center “Memorial” dispatched an inquiry into the "disappearance" of Naip Idigov to the public prosecutor of the Chechen Republic. In addition, the matter was addressed on 28 February, 2002, in a session of the Permanent Working Group4; however, human rights workers still could not obtain any information regarding Idigov's fate.

On 21 October relatives learned by chance that on 18 February, 2002, in the Oktyabrsky district of Grozny, residents discovered the body of an unidentified man and, having made preliminary photographs, buried him in the courtyard of the mosque. The relatives identified Naip Idigov in the photographs. The report in the federal news turned out to be accurate in its assertion that Idigov had been detained and killed — and false in all other respects. Idigov was executed shortly after being taken from his home in Ingushetia on the night of 14 February, 2002. The body showed evidence of beatings: discolorations and bruising, the hands tied with rope behind the back. On the temple there was an aperture from the executioner's bullet.

In the first war, Naip Idigov participated in Chechen armed formations, which may have been the motivation for his detention. However, everything else — his abduction, torture, and murder — undoubtedly lies beyond the boundaries of the law. The falsifications of his abduction — the reports that a "boevik was killed while installing a landmine" — are equally illegal5.

Federal units and subdivisions began deploying to Ingushetia in summer 2002. Subdivisions of the internal forces were stationed next to the tent camps of IDPs, while the 503rd mobile infantry regiment was deployed around the stanitsa Troitskaya. Incidentally, the "reinforcement" was observed along the entire Caucasian ridge from Dagestan to Karachaevo-Cherkessia, since with the opening of the mountain passes it was expected that the detachments of the field commander

4 The latest meeting of representatives of human rights organizations with the leadership of Chechnya's law-enforcement agencies. Similar meetings, organized on the findings of the Civic Forum (2001), took place in the village Znamenskaja and in Grozny from January to July 2002.5 Incidentally, similarly bloody "additions" to the truth were not the exception. They were also to be found in Chechnya. For instance, around noon on 2 March, 2002, soldiers from the 34th brigade of the operation division of the internal forces of the Russian federation arrived in armored vehicles, seized and left in an unknown direction with four residents of the city Argun: Apti Bargaev, Beslan Bekhaev, Shamil Idrisov, and Alikhan Muzaev. According to relatives, three were sized in their homes, while Idrisov was taken at the neighboring intersection. Relatives immediately turned to the municipal administration with written statements, to the regional office of internal affairs and to the local military commandant's office, but were unable to learn anything about the fate of the abducted. Two days later, on 4 March, it was learned that there were four bodies in the courtyard of the commandant's office. They were the bodies of the abducted. Soldiers declared that the four were Chechen fighters who had, on the night of 3 to 4 March, attacked the 34th brigade and had been killed by return mortar fire. It was not only the discrepancy in the dates of abduction and the "battle" which discredited this explanation. First, the light shoes of the deceased — three in clogs and one in sandals — were not designed for running in darkness through the March mud. Second, their clothes are suspect: the thin jeans of one of the deceased were not meant for running, while his bright white t-shirt would have been too noticeable. The light shoes of all the deceased would have been appropriate for a sunny fall day, but absolutely unacceptable at night, when the temperature dropped below zero. Finally, in the last hours of life the deceased were tied up: on the wrists of each body were indications of chaining or binding while they were still alive. They were killed by bursts of submachine-gun fire in the back at point-blank range. However, in the reports of the 34th brigade of the operational division of internal forces, the men were named as Chechen fighters and were killed during a night attack.

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Ruslan Gelaev would cross over from Georgia. It turned out the preparations were in vain: on 11 September, in the vicinity of the village Olgetti in the Dzheirakhsk district, Gelaev's detachments crossed the Russian border unimpeded. For two weeks they remained unnoticed in the mountainous wooded area not far from the village Tarskoe in North Osetia — perhaps the most militarized republic in the North Caucasus. On 26 September near the village Galashki, where the detachments were crossing the Assinovskaya gorge, their rearguard came into contact with federal forces, but in the end the Chechen detachments escaped into Chechnya practically without casualties.

The result of the belatedly undertaken "operational reconnaissance measures" was the abduction and "disappearance" of a local resident of Ingushetia — the first known to Memorial. It is hard to imagine what attracted the attention of the "law-enforcement agencies" to the 77-year-old beekeeper Sultan Sainaroev, born in 1925, resident of Galashki village, 48 Shosseinaya street. He raised bees in the small place Berezhka, seven kilometers from the village. On 22 October, 2002, soldiers seized him in his bee garden, put him into a military transport vehicle, and took him away in the direction of the village Arshty, after which he disappeared. On 14 November, 2002, the public prosecutor of the Republic of Ingushetia opened a criminal investigation per Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abduction).

The human rights center Memorial is in possession of a copy of the response to the inquiry which was directed to the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Ingushetia, addressed to the Commander of the unified military forces. The inquiry was answered6 29 November, 2002, by the commander of detachment no. 74814 (205th mobile infantry brigade), the subdivisions of which were deployed during that period in the vicinity of the Arshty and Galashki villages. The commander of the detachment reported that "Subdivisions of the 205th mobile infantry brigade in Arshty did not detain any citizens on suspicion of participation in an illegal armed unit. The indicated citizen, Sainaroev, was detained by representatives of the Regional Operational Headquarters for the North Caucasus of the FSB of the Russian Federation."

It should seem that the fate of Sainaroev could now be established for investigation without particular difficulty. The matter was forwarded to the military prosecutor. On 1 July, 2005, S. Sainaroev was still listed as missing. The criminal investigation has been stopped "due to the impossibility of establishing the identity of the persons who should be indicted for criminal acts."

Special operations to capture so-called boeviks were often conducted as though in a desert, with no regard for the safety of the civilian population, which sometimes produced unwarranted victims. The attempt by members of Akhmad Kadyrov's security service to detain two residents of the Chechen Republic, Imran Musalaev and Isa Mikailov, alleged combatants, is an example. On 14 November, 2002, members of the security service attempted to ambush Musalaev and Mikailov in their vehicle in the vicinity of the central bus station of the town of Malgobek.

Musalaev, however, escaped. Attempting to avoid his pursuers, he jumped on a regularly scheduled bus with passengers. His pursuers boarded the bus and opened fire, shooting to kill. According to witness accounts, Kadyrov's men saw that Musalaev was holding a live grenade. Nevertheless, they shot him several times at point-blank range. There was an explosion. In addition to the boevik, three passengers were killed and nine wounded by the bullets and shrapnel.

6 Letter 2303, 29.11.2002

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Both of the opposing sides evinced an equal readiness to sacrifice the lives of civilians uninvolved in the conflict.

The actions of the law-enforcement agencies of the Chechen Republic, taken without the agreement of organs of the Interior Ministry or the office of the public prosecutor of Ingushetia, were illegal. It was later ascertained that Kadyrov's men acted, not on their own initiative, but on the orders of the regional operational headquarters. The actions of Kadyrov's security service on the territory of the neighboring republic were only brought to light because of the practical failure of the special operation, the deaths of the passengers, and the following investigation. If there had been no victims, all that would have been recorded was another abduction of two IDPs by "unidentified armed men".

In all, Memorial documented 28 cases of abduction for Ingushetia in 2002 (27 residents of Chechnya, one resident of Ingushetia). Four of them were killed, two were released by their abductors after interrogation and beating, and sixteen went missing. Six of the abductees were soon found in preliminary detainment or temporary detention center. Of these, one was sentenced for participation in an illegal armed unit, four were acquitted in court, and one is still under investigation.

1.2. 2003: Escalation of Violence

The year 2003 saw a significant escalation of violence in Ingushetia. Memorial has documented 52 cases of abduction in the republic for that year. Of these, 38 are residents of Chechnya, 12 are residents of Ingushetia, and 2 are citizens of Armenia. The corpse of one of the abductees was found subsequently, 32 people went missing, and 19 were released after protracted interrogations accompanied by beatings. The released people do not know who interrogated them, or where they were detained. Nonetheless, the character of the questions asked to them in detainment suggests that quite probably they were detained by representatives of one of the security agencies of the Russian Federation.

Those who have disappeared and been killed include not only "victims of abduction by unidentified people" but also people whose detention or arrest was an acknowledged fact.

On 6 January, 2003, at 6:30 in the morning, armed men in masks entered the IDP camp Satsita in six vehicles. They seized Visadi Shokarov, born 1971, and three other men, forced them into a car, and without explanation drove them away in an unknown direction. The women and old men who attempted to prevent the abduction were beaten with the butts of rifles, and shots were fired over their heads.

That same morning relatives appealed to the local office of the Interior Ministry in the Sunzhensk district of Ingushetia. There they unexpectedly received the explanation that the four abducted men were on the premises of the police building, and that they had been detained by members of the local Nadterechnyi office of the Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic, who would take the detained men to Chechnya. Relatives were still standing in front of the police building when two men in civilian clothes approached Visita Shokarov, born 1966, the brother of the detained Visadi, led him off to the side on the pretext of conversation, and forced him into the yard of the local Interior Ministry office. The Shokarov brothers were taken to the village Znamenskoe, the administrative center of the Nadterechnyi district of Chechnya.

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In Znamenskoe, however, as in the local office of the Interior Ministry and in the public prosecutor's office, authorities refused to acknowledge for several days that the detained men had been delivered there. The situation was acknowledged only after seven days, on 13 January, but at that time a member of the FSB informed Visita Shokarov's wife that he had supposedly been freed on 8 January. According to relatives, however, Shokarov did no return to the Satsita camp, and his fate since that time remains unknown.

Visadi Shokarov was accused of involvement in an assassination attempt on the son of the head of the Nadterehnyi district. On 10 February, a man named Pashkov, the investigator for the prosecutor of Chechnya's Nadterehnyi district whose inquiry had resulted in the detentions in the Satsita camp, informed Visadi's wife that she could collect her husband's body from the morgue in the town of Mozdok. According to investigators, on 5 February there was a car accident while transporting the arrested men to Mozdok, and Shokarov died with another detained man, a resident of Chechnya with the surname Baigeriev. The body was brought to the Satsita camp on 12 February, badly burned, with numerous cuts and puncture wounds, with part of the skull cut off, and without a hand.

Relatives of the deceased asked the public prosecutor's office of the Sunzhensk district of Ingushetia to conduct a forensic medial examination. As late as four o'clock in the afternoon, no one from the prosecutor's office in the Satsita camp had appeared; the body was then taken away for burial. Relatives of the deceased subsequently gave up trying to obtain an investigation into the circumstances of Visadi's death.

In 2003, "cleanup" operations accompanied by large-scale violations of human rights began in Ingushetia, not only in the densely packed living areas of IDPs, but in Ingush villages as well. The media regularly reported the detentions or killings in Ingushetia of boeviks and the discovery of weapons caches. There was also a manifest increase in the activity of boeviks in Ingushetia in comparison with previous years. Police officers were attacked and military convoys ran over landmines. An incomplete index of media reports on attacks, shellings, and explosions in Ingushetia in the first half of 2003 is included below.

In January 2003 two police officers on sentry duty were shot and one officer of the commandant's office of the Chechen Republic was killed. In February one police officer was killed while attempting to inspect a car and another was wounded. The attackers were arrested the same day. In March three police officers were wounded while exchanging fire with boeviks around the village Ekazhevo; three Russian soldiers were wounded when an armored vehicle was blown up by a radio-controlled mine near the Ingush village Chemulga, not far from the administrative border with Chechnya. On 1 April four soldiers were killed and one was wounded in a landmine explosions near the village Ali-Yurt. On 21 April three police officers were wounded while detaining boeviks. On 24 and 28 April military vehicles were blown up. On 4 May three soldiers were wounded when their armored vehicles came under fire; on 16 May three were killed and two were wounded. On 30 May police Col. Tagir Bekov, deputy head of the Nazran branch of the Interior Ministry, was killed. On the same day a column of vehicles belonging to federal forces came under fire on the administrative border with Chechnya, two soldiers were killed and five were wounded. On the night of 10 June, two boeviks were killed and three were wounded in an exchange with federal forces near the village Galashki. On 11 June two unidentified people were killed and one officer of the Interior Ministry was wounded in an exchange of fire near the village Ekazhevo. On 17 June boeviks opened fire on an intelligence/reconnaissance group of the commandant's office near the village Muzhichi.

The actions of Russian law-enforcement agencies, in turn, demonstrated that "Chechen-style counterterrorist operations" had come to Ingushetia.

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In 6 — 7 June, 2003, a "cleanup" operation was conducted in the mountain village Arshty in the Sunzhensk district of Ingushetia. The village was completely blockaded. The head of the local administration, who had left the previous evening for the district center, was denied entrance back into the village and his car fired upon. Members of the Sunzhensk office of the Interior Ministry were also refused entry to the village until the "cleanup" operation had been completed. There was no representative of the public prosecutor's office present during the course of the operation. The soldiers did not identify themselves and responded to residents' inquiries vaguely with "We're from Khankala."7 Armored vehicles and other military hardware, as a rule, had had their identification numbers smeared out. Several local residents were beaten by soldiers, and in many homes personal property was stolen or purposefully damaged.

The "cleanup" operation in the village Chemulga on 17 — 18 June earned far less reproach: only one local resident was beaten. Although the identification numbers of military hardware were smeared out as before, residents knew that the "cleanup" operation was being conducted by the mobile detachment of the Interior Ministry, based in Karabulak. The surname of the leader of the operation was known and the operation was monitored by the local head of administration and members of the village police force.

Memorial has no primary information on the fights near the village Galashki on the night of 10 June, 2003 (see above). It is known, however, that on the evening of 10 June soldiers killed a local resident and seriously wounded a woman in this same district.

Soldiers fired upon a car in which Tamara Zabieva (born 1938) and her two sons Umar and Ali were returning to their village from their garden plot. The woman was seriously wounded and lost consciousness. The bombardment continued and the sons dragged her from the car and brought her to a gully. Ali then set off for the village for help, while Umar remained with his mother.

In the meantime the third of the brothers Zabiev, Mussa, a major of the Russian Army was at home in Galashki. Having heard the sounds of shooting and having found out that his relatives have not got back yet, Mussa tuned his portable radio transmitter on the militia wave and heard the local policemen report to the Sunzhensky ROVD: “A column of military servicemen, heading in the direction of the village Dattyh, subjected to fire and injured civilians”

The police officers and relatives of the Zabievs who arrived on the site found only the unconscious woman. The corpse of Umar Zabiev was found only the second day, sprinkled with dirt, with signs of gunshot wounds and numerous bruises, abrasions, and fractures. It was obvious that Ali had been seized by soldiers and, having undergone "accelerated interrogation", was liquidated8. A criminal case was opened on the evidence of gunshots, wounds, and the deaths of peaceful residents, but was suspended after a few months "due to the impossibility of locating suspects".

On 21 August, 2003, in the stanitsa Ordzhonikidzevskaya, soldiers seized five men who were apparently suspected of participation in armed formations. The methods of the seizure, however, were also rather thuggish.

Around 15:00 armed men in camouflage and masks ran into the courtyard of the local polyclinic and commenced firing at will. Visitors and medical personnel scattered in a panic. The armed

7 Khankala is a settlement near Grozy where the largest Russian military base in the Chechen Republic is situated.8 The circumstances of this crime resemble the infamous matter of Ulman.

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men broke into the surgical ward, where at that moment Rasmbek Saidulaev (born 1984), who had come in with gunshot wounds, was being bandaged up (he told doctors his name was Anzor Suleimanov). Saidulaev lost consciousness after being pistol-whipped on the head. The men continued to beat him. The law-enforcement officers drove the nurses into a corner and held them at gunpoint, then ordered them to bind Saidulaev's legs. In the corridor the soldiers savagely beat Lom-Ali Shaipov (born 1982), who had accompanied Saidulaev to the polyclinic. According to witness accounts, his arms were broken in several places. The bloodied Saidulaev and Shaipov were then dragged into the street and thrown into a car (the make was Gazel) with tinted glass. Medical personnel, mostly women, tried to interfere and heard in response: "Get lost, prostitutes, these are not people, they're animals."

Also detained in the polyclinic were the IDPs from Chechnya Adam Patsuev (born 1984, living temporarily at stanitsa Nesterovskaya, 113 Leonidov street), Salam Kerimov (born 1985, living temporarily in stanitsa Ordzhonikidzevskaya, 81 Komsomolskaya street), and Ibragim Idigov (born 1983, living temporarily in stanitsa Nesterovskaya, 78 Lenin street). Idigov came to have his wounds dressed; Patsuev and Kerimov accompanied him. When the soldiers burst into the polyclinic's courtyard, Idigov was being bandaged by Dr. Magomed Khashiev, while Patsuev and Kerimov waited for him on a bench in the courtyard. Khashiev and Idigov became scared after they saw soldiers beating a patient in a neighboring office. They ran outside along the corridor. The soldiers opened fire on them from behind and wounded Idigov in the shoulder. They were seized by soldiers outside as they ran out of the building and were kicked and beaten with the soldiers' rifle butts. Patsuev and Kerimov rushed to Idigov, but they too were kicked and beaten. The three young men were handcuffed and put into a car (Gazel). The solders left Dr. Khashiev lying on the ground.

According to witnesses, soldiers dragged one man onto the steps of the polyclinic and shot him at point-blank range. Several witnesses reported that the wound was fatal and the man died.

All five men taken from the polyclinic disappeared without a trace. On 25 August, 2003, IDPs from Chechnya blocked the Rostov — Baku road on the administrative border of Chechnya and Ingushetia and demanded to know the fate of the abductees.

A criminal case was opened in light of the kidnapping, but investigations were later stopped "due to the impossibility of establishing the identity of the perpetrators"

On 15 September, 2003 a building of law-enforcement agency was for the first time attacked in Ingushetia. A GAZ-53 truck loaded with explosives cut through a vacant lot, broke through a barrier, and exploded 15 meters from the building of the local branch of the FSB around noon in the city Magas9. Five people were killed including the two suicide bombers in the cab of the truck; 29 wounded were taken to the hospital.

Meanwhile, abductions and "disappearances" in Ingushetia continued.

Around 15:00 on 18 February, 2003, in the center of the town Karabulak was abducted Bashir Mutsolgov, born 1975, resident of Oskanova street, a school teacher of mathematics.

According to relatives, Bashir took his sick mother to RSO-Alania that morning, where she was undergoing treatment. Returning to Karabulak, he left the car at his parents' house (35 Ordzhonikidze street), took from his father the keys from his house and a laptop computer

9 Magas is the capital of the Republic of Ingushetia.

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(which was brought to him for repairing the night before), and set off for his own house on the opposite side of Oskanov street. On the way he met his former pupil and stopped by to talk with him. Suddenly, two cars with tinted glass came to a stop by the nearby phone booths — one car was a white 5-door Niva VAZ-2131 (the number plate was covered with dirt but the region code (26) was clearly visible); the other car was a dark blue Lada VAZ-2106. Armed men in camouflage and masks jumped out of the cars, kicked the teenager and fell upon Bashir, striking him in the gut and pushing into one of the cars. All of this happened in the plain view of many eyewitnesses. The attackers were also responsible for an automobile accident near the scene, when two Gazel minibuses collided.

The cars with the abductors left Karabulak on the federal Rostov — Baku road. It was later established that they stopped at a GIBBD OVD checkpoint for Karabulak, presented a special pass from the regional operational headquarters, and drove off in the direction of the city Nazran.

Relatives of Bashir Mutsolgov appealed to the Karabulak public prosecutor's office, the republic's federal security service, and the Interior Ministry. They were told that members of these offices had not been involved in Mutsolgov's detention or arrest.

As of September 2005 the whereabouts of B. Mutsolgov are still unknown.

1.3. 2004: The "Chechenization" of Ingushetia

In 2004 permanent residents of Ingushetia began to "disappear" more and more often as a result of special operations. In all, Memorial documented 47 abductions in 2004: 19 residents of Chechnya and 28 residents of Ingushetia. The copses of three abductees were later discovered, 21 abductees went missing, and 20 were ransomed by relatives or were freed by their abductors after lengthy interrogations accompanied, as a rule, by torture. Four abductees were later "discovered" in provisional detention facilities.

In many cases the criminal involvement of federal law-enforcement agencies was plainly adduced by the circumstances of abduction, witness testimony, and indirect evidence.

The problem of abductions in Ingushetia attracted public attention in March 2004. At that time the republic was gripped by a wave of notorious and violent disappearances: deputy prosecutor of the Republic of Ingushetia Rashid Ozdoev, who submitted a report10 on human rights violations to the local branch of the FSB of Ingushetia several days before his abduction; network administrator Timur Yandiev; member of the extra-departmental guard service of Ingushetia for the Interior Ministry Rasukhan Evloev; and Ibragim Izmailov, a farm watchman in the village Ali-Yurt11. In all, 10 people were abducted on the territory of Ingushetia in March 2004.

In June 2004 there was a unique occurrence in Ingushetia: the involvement of the FSB in the abduction of people was unequivocally documented.

10 The report was sent to General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation V.V. Ustinov, Director of the FSB of the Russian Federation N.P. Patrushev, and Head of the UFSB of Ingushetia S.B. Koryakov.11 Rashid Ozdoev, Timur Yandiev, Rasukhan Evloev, and Ibragim Izmailov have also disappeared without a trace.

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On 15 June, 2004, around 20:00, Adam Medov, a permanent resident of Ingushetia (born 1980, registered in Karabulak, 4 Chkalov street; living temporarily in Nazran on Nasyrkortskaya street), left his home in his car. He did not return that day.

The night of 16 June Adam Medov called his brother Magomed and said that his car had broken down and he could not come home. There was no time for his brother to ask any follow-up questions; the line was disconnected immediately.

On the evening of 17 June, Medov's relatives were informed that their son was in the Sunzhensk office of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia. They arrived around 20:00 and learned what had happened to their son from some police officers with whom they were acquainted. That day, Ingush border guards at the Ingush GIBBD (GAI) station next to the Kavkaz-1 checkpoint had stopped two vehicles heading into Chechnya for inspection, a green Volga GAZ-3110 and a Zhiguli VAZ-21099. They heard a knock from the trunk of the Volga, opened it, and saw a tied-up man who said: "I am Ingush! They want to take me away!" This was Adam Medov. The second car quickly drove off into Chechnya12. The armed men in the Volga declared themselves to be agents of the FSB, claimed the Ingush police had no right to detain them, and attempted to resist. The Ingush police detained the abductors anyway. It turned out there was another bound man — Aslan Kushtonashvili — lying on the floor of the back seat. They were all taken to the Sunzhensk office of the Interior Ministry. Under questioning there, Adam Medov said that on 15 June in the city Karabulak, armed men had stopped his car — four Chechens and four Russians. There was also a passenger in his car. Both men were taken to the FSB building in the city Magas, where they were tortured. On 16 June, Adam was forced to call home and say everything was fine so that his relatives would not mount a search for him.

Police officers allowed relatives to bring food for Adam, and even offered to let his brothers Magomed and Usman see him. When the brothers entered the Interior Ministry building and came to the staircase leading to the second floor, someone shouted from above: "No meeting! Get them out of here!" The brothers were then shown out of the building.

Around 23:30, police officers informed relatives that Adam had been put into a car and would now be taken away, and soon after, that Medov and Kushtonashvili had been put into a UAZ truck in the rear courtyard and taken away to Chechnya. A member of the Sunzhensk office of the Interior Ministry and a member of the local branch of the FSB of Ingushetia (who had come to the Interior Ministry office) accompanied them to the Kavkaz-1 checkpoint.

On 21 June, 2004, B.M. Bekov, deputy prosecutor of the Sunzhensk district, sent replies to the appeals of Adam Medov's brother and M.D. Ozdoev, a deputy of the People's Assembly of Ingushetia. From the replies it seems A. Medov was detained by agents of the local branch of the FSB operating in the Chechen Republic, under the leadership of Lt. Col. V.V. Beletskii13. From other replies of officials it was established that, in addition to Beletskii, A.G. Shurov (an official of the criminal investigation department), Ensign D.A. Panferov, and Sergeant I.Yu. Minbulatov took part in the detention (practically speaking, the abduction) of A. Medov14.

12 The Kavkaz-1 checkpoint is located immediately beyond the Ingush border post and is controlled by federal agencies, including the FSB. Every vehicle going into or out of Chechnya on that road is inspected.13 Replies no. 15-5-04 from 21.06.04 to M.K. Medov and no. 15-167 o/e-045-04 to the appeal of Deputy M.D. Ozdoev.14 Reply from Deputy General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation F.N. Fridinskii no. 40/2-2918-04 from 18.08.04 to the Commissioner of Human Rights in the Russian Federation V.P. Lukin.

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On 9 July, 2004, Sunzhensk district prosecutor G.M-G. Merzhuev confirmed all of the above facts in a conference with O.P. Orlov (member of the Human Rights Commissioner of the RF's expert commission and Chairman of the Board of the human rights center Memorial) and S.A. Gannushkina (member of the President of the RF's Commission on Human Rights and board member of the human rights center Memorial). The prosecutor expressed doubt only that Medov had in fact been transported in the trunk of the car. The prosecutor reported that the agents of the local branch of the FSB for Chechnya were in possession of documents empowering them to detain suspects. According to the prosecutor, however, Medov's detention was carried out with the most flagrant violations of the legislative norms of the RF.

Why were agents of the local branch of the FSB in such blatant violation of the law allowed to take Medov and Kushtonoshvili into Chechnya? The Sunzhensk district public prosecutor contacted the Sunzhensk office of the local branch of the FSB of Ingushetia on 17 June and received the explanation that the actions of the detained FSB agents were correct and the men should be released immediately. In the face of the obvious illegality of the FSB agents' actions, the prosecutor allowed them to leave with the two detainees for Chechnya15.

The four agents of the FSB traveled with their two detainees through the Kavkaz-1 checkpoint and into the territory of the Chechen Republic. All the public prosecutor could do was send inquiries on the following day (18 June, 2004) to the public prosecutor of the Chechen Republic and the military prosecutor of the Combined Military Forces A.V. Mokritskii asking where Medov and Kushtonoshvili had been taken, where they were being held, and what accusations they were charged with. The reply from the military prosecutor's office said the following: after checking it was found that the names V.V. Beletskii, A.G. Shurov, D.A. Panferov, and I.Yu. Minbulatov were not contained in a list of agents of the local branch of the FSB in Ingushetia, and the fate of A.K. Medov was unknown16. Thus, we are presented with a crime covered by Article 126 of the criminal code of the RF (abduction). The crime was committed by men identifying themselves with documentation from the FSB who were able to freely cross the Kavkaz-1 checkpoint, and the de facto accomplices of these men were the acting Minister of the Interior of Ingushetia, members of the office of the public prosecutor of Ingushetia, and the leadership of the Sunzhensk office of the local branch of the FSB for Ingushetia.

A criminal case № 04600045 of July 28 2004 was opened by the Sunzhensk district prosecutor of Ingushetia in the matter of the abduction of A.K. Medov. The case is still open. Evidently the Sunzhensk district prosecutor's office is incapable of investigating this matter, and the case should be passed to the military prosecutor. The military prosecutor's office, however, will not accept the case since, from its point of view, there is no unequivocal evidence that the abductors were agents of the FSB if "they were not on the list".

The investigation was halted "due to the impossibility of finding the perpetrators", then was reopened under pressure from relatives and their representatives, then was halted again. According to the information of Zalina Medova, the wife of one of the abductees, the record of her husband's interrogation "disappeared" from the Sunzhensk office of the Interior Ministry17. She then turned to the courts with an action against the district prosecutor's office, inasmuch as it

15 According to reply no. 40/2-2918-04 on 18.08.04 from deputy general prosecutor S.N. Fridinskii to the Human Rights Commissioner of the RF, the order to release the FSB agents with the men they had detained came from acting Minister of the Interior of Ingushetia A.S. Kostoev (who died 21.06.04).16 The Human Rights Commissioner of the RF received similar replies from deputy general prosecutor of the RF S.N. Fridinskii and from A.A. Bragina, first deputy head of the FSB of the RF's Service for Defense of the Constitutional Regime and Fight with Terrorism.17 See complaint of Z.A. Medova to the General Prosecutor of the RF dated 15.09.04.

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was this office which rejected her petition for the interrogation of a series of agents of the local branch of the FSB of Ingushetia and the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia; for the interrogation of soldiers at the Kavkaz-1 checkpoint; for the review of the registration logs of that checkpoint; and so forth. The investigator refuses to share with her information regarding the progress of the criminal investigation. On 25 January, 2005, Mrs. Medova's action was rejected by the court because, according to representatives of the prosecutor's office, "all necessary investigative actions were being carried out". The investigator's refusal to acquaint Mrs. Medova with materials from the criminal investigation was declared lawful. The court considered it unnecessary to require the prosecutor's office to provide evidence of the claims of its representatives.

On 16 June, 2004, the human rights center Memorial sent a petition from Medov's relatives to the European Court on Human Rights, with a request to apply Article 39 of the Court's charter to the case. According to this article, if there is information on a direct threat to the life of a person held by the government, the Court is empowered to require the government to remove the source of the threat immediately. The Court accepted the petition (no. 25385/00) on the same day. The Court declined to apply Article 39. The President of the Court House decided, however, in accordance with Article 41 of the Court's charter, to assign a high priority to the petition's review.

No new information was obtained in the course of correspondence between the Strasburg court and the Russian government. In July 2005, however, the Russian government is obliged to present a detailed memorandum on the matter of A. Medov to the Court. However, upon request of the Representative of Russia the deadline on Medov case was extended for three months. A memorandum of the Prosecution General of the Russian Federation stated that in the framework of investigations personnel of MVD and FSB of Republic Ingushetia had been interrogated/ However, the content of the interrogations was not specified. Memorandum makes it clear that investigations were carried out in an unhurried manner. Thus, for example, interrogations of such important witnesses as militiamen, who stopped the car at the checkpoint of traffic police, as well as of Mr. M. Kodzoev, the head of Sunzhesky FSB in RI, and his deputy M.A. Korgov, were carried out only in September-October, i.e. 2-3 months after the criminal case into abduction was instigated. None of the Chechen FSB servicemen or FSB and MVD servicemen at the checkpoint “Kavkaz-1” were not interrogated at all.

The Memorandum states that the investigations received responses from the prosecution of the Chechen Republic and FSB of the Chechen Republic which indicate that no criminal cases were instigated in respect of Kushtanoshvili and Medov and that officially their detainment was not carried out.

The European Court was denied copies of the materials of the criminal case. The Delegations of the European Court were offered to read the materials (excluding the parts which contain military secret or confidential evidence) during their visit to the Chechen Republic without the right to copy or pass this information over to other people.

In the meantime, starting 2005 Mrs. Medova was receiving threats. Unidentified people, apparently speaking for agents of the FSB, have proposed that Zalina Medova withdraw her petition from the Court for the sake of her own life and the safety of her relatives.

Representatives of HRC “Memorial” have received interesting information on the matter of Medov during conversations with staff of the public prosecutor's office of Ingushetia. The latter expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that many law-enforcement agencies and services (the FSB, the military intelligence division of the 58th army, the mobile division of the Interior

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Ministry in Ingushetia, the GRU, and others) were conducting operations on the territory of the Republic of Ingushetia without any coordination between themselves and without coordinating with the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Ingushetia. Agents of these agencies and services carry out detentions and arrests without informing the Interior Ministry or the public prosecutor's office of Ingushetia. Moreover, there are cases when representatives of these agencies have operated in the North Caucasus under pseudonyms, with documents containing false surnames. As a result, relatives of detained individuals do not know whether those individuals have been detained by representatives of the government or abducted by bandits. Staff members of the public prosecutor's office acknowledged that there are cases where people who have disappeared were detained by representatives of government agencies. Criminal investigations are opened for these cases, but investigations are then halted "due to the impossibility of establishing the identity of perpetrators". The staff members of the public prosecutor's office further asserted that they had repeatedly expressed, during coordination meetings in the presence of representatives of law-enforcement agencies, the necessity of ceasing to detain and arrest people on the territory of the Republic of Ingushetia without informing agencies of the Interior Ministry or the public prosecutor's office — to no avail. One of those who spoke with us on this matter was Rashid Ozdoev, who was abducted in March 2004.

The definitive spillover of the Chechen variant of "counterterrorism operations" to Ingushetia took place following an attack of boeviks on the night from 21 to 22 June, 2004. At this time a large detachment of boeviks (from 200 to 600 men), whose ranks comprised many ethnic Ingush, infiltrated Ingushetia and temporarily took control of a series of settlements, including the cities Nazran and Karabulak. The only resistance to the boeviks was shown by officers of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia, as a result many of the latter were killed or wounded. The Ingush police force received help from neither the army nor the internal military forces during the course of events. For instance, a small unit of boeviks was able to blockade an entire military subdivision, the 503rd mobile infantry regiment, which was deployed near the stanitsa Troitskaya, and cut off any attempt at the advancement of armored vehicles.

In the course of the operation, the boeviks carried out extra-judicial executions of many agents of law-enforcement agencies whom they had captured. Official figures on the number of killed and wounded were contradictory18. In all, at least 79 people were killed as a result of the attack, including 43 agents of law-enforcement agencies, and at least 88 people received wounds of varying seriousness.

For 48 hours after the attack, there were no operations of any kind carried out in Ingushetia, and the boeviks quietly left. Only then did law-enforcement agencies begin "active searches" for participants in the attack. In many ways, the events of 21-22 June were a turning point. If before the attack law-enforcement agencies of Ingushetia were occasionally suspected in flagrant violations of human rights, after the attack such cases became the norm.

Cleanup operations were conducted first and foremost in the compact settlements of IDPs from Chechnya. In the course of special operations in the villages Altievo and Nesterovskaya and the IDP cities Logovaz, Tsentr Kamaz, and SMU-4, a total of around 70 people were detained. The

18 Various figures were put forward by various sources citing official law-enforcement agencies. In the course of one week, the local newspaper Ingushetia had the following: 90 dead, among them 62 agents of law-enforcement agencies, and 93 wounded (no. 83, 3 August, 2004, citing the RBK agency); 79 dead, among them 43 agents of law-enforcement agencies, and 105 wounded (no. 85, 5 August, 2004, citing regions.ru and deputy general prosecutor S. Fridinskii); 91 killed, among them 23 civilians, and 88 wounded (no. 87, 10 August 2004, citing V. Pechkalov's article in the newspaper Izvestiya.)

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harshest cleanup operation took place in the IDP settlement at the milkfarm “Altievo”: on 23 and 25 June, the camp was blockaded for several hours by agents of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia and the mobile detachment of the Interior Ministry of the RF. Men were forced to undress and lie on the ground; they were then beaten. Women were threatened with violence if they did not return to Chechnya within three days. According to the commandant of the camp, more than 50 people were taken from the camp Altievo.

Due to the coordinated efforts of Russian and international human rights organizations, it was possible to put an end to the wave of indiscriminate violence, and most of those detained were freed. Nine were criminally charged. Seven of the latter were freed: thanks to the efforts of the lawyer the criminal cases were closed due to the absence of evidence connecting the suspects with the actions of the boeviks. Two young people — Alikhan Ibragimov and Magomed Tsakhigov — had no well-off relatives who could try solve their problem- and so after being beaten and tortured they stood in court charged under articles 205.3 (terrorism), 208.2 (participation in illegal armed units), 209.2 (participation in a gang), and 222.3 (unlawful possession of firearms) of the criminal code of the Russian Federation (see chapter 3 below).

During the summer of 2004, Memorial received appeals from relatives of permanent residents of Ingushetia who were victims of the arbitrariness of law-enforcement agents.

Following are a few examples.

On the morning of 6 July, 2004, in the city Karabulak, armed men in camouflage and masks took from their homes, in an unknown direction, several permanent residents of Ingushetia: Zaur Mutsolgov (born 1981), Mairbek Gaparkhoev (born 1984), Aliskhan Pugoev (born 1978), Adam (born 1974) and Magomed (born 1978) Aushev, and Abubakar Barkinkhoev (born 1982).

The armed men presented no documents; neither did they identify themselves or explain the reason for their actions. They behaved quite crudely, performing searches without witnesses and in the absence of the owners of the houses. In several of the cited cases, homeowners discovered some of their valuables were missing after the termination of the illegal searches.

According to the testimony of neighbors, armed men in camouflage and masks, in a large number of automobiles without number plates, approached house no. 60 on Revolyutsionnaya street, where the Aushev family was living. They broke into the courtyard. At this time there were five people in the house: Aina Ausheva, her sons Adam Aushev and Magomed Aushev, and two of her young grandsons. The attackers presented no documents, did not identify themselves, and considered it unnecessary to name the motive for their actions. A search was conducted in the living spaces and other parts of the house and grounds without witnesses and in the absence of the owner of the house. The armed men then demanded the passports of everyone located in the house.

"Who are you, and what do you want from us?" asked Aina Ausheva. One of the armed men answered: "We're from the FSB." Then he asked: "Where were your sons on the night from 21 to 22 June?" Aina answered that her sons were at home and that neighbors would confirm this. The men then departed in an unknown direction with Adam and Magomed Aushev. After the abductors were gone, Aina Ausheva discovered that two mobile phones and 1000 rubles were missing from the house.

The story was much the same in house no. 10 on Ozdoeva street, where the Gaparkhoev family lives. Here the armed men sealed off not only the Gaparkhoev courtyard but the adjacent houses

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and grounds as well. They then began to pound on the gates of the Gaparkhoev household, shouting "Open up, assholes!" The men burst into the courtyard and immediately put all the residents of the house against the wall. The father of the family was beaten when he tried to ascertain the grounds for the intrusion. Muslim Gaparkhoev, who came to his father's aid, was forced to the ground. After the search, which was conducted without observing the lawful procedures, the armed men left the premises, taking with them Mairbek Gaparkhoev in an unknown direction.

There were both Russians and Ingush among the armed intruders. When the mother of the family, M. Gaparkhoeva, began to cry and asked in Ingush "Why are you taking my son?" one of the intruders answered in Ingush: "Don't worry, they'll check him and let him go." Another of the men then sharply reprimanded the first: "Don't even think about saying another word in your language!"

That same morning, a large group of armed men comported themselves in an analogous manner in house no. 20 on Komarova street, where the Pugoev family lives. Here they stole an album of Pugoev family photographs, the passports of Aslan Pugoev and his brother Aliskhan Pugoev, who was at work. Most of the armed men had Slavic features and spoke in unaccented Russian; there were, however, several Ingush among them. One of them, in a conversation with Maret Pugoeva, said that his surname was Mamilov and that he worked for the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Ingushetia. Mamilov did not present any documentation of his identity. When the search was finished, the arm men wanted to take Aslan Pugoev with them, but one of them said that Aslan was not on the list, and the men left him in the house. The armed men demanded to know, however, where his brother Aliskhan worked.

A short time later, armed men came to the workplace of Aliskhan Pugoev and took him away without explanation in an unknown direction, having first drawn a t-shirt over his head.

In the Mutsolgov home (86 Oskanova street), when Aset Mutsolgova asked "Who are you and on what grounds have you burst into my home?" it was rudely indicated to her that she had better shut her mouth. Her children Zaur, Rustam, Yusup, and Zarema were made to lie on the ground in the yard. When Yusup was lying on the ground one of the men struck him on the head and left him with a bleeding cut. After some time Zarema was allowed to stand, but Rustam and Yusup were ordered to crawl into the vegetable garden.

When Aset Mutsolgova tried to protest the actions of the armed men, they threatened to execute her on the spot. Among themselves the armed men spoke in Russian and Ingush. During the search, one room had its floor ripped up, furniture and possessions were overturned in the rooms, and one door was destroyed. Naturally, no record or report of the search was presented to the owners of the house. The intruders took away Zaur Mutsolgov in an unknown direction. They also took the passports of five members of the Mutsolgov family.

After the armed men had left, the Mutsolgovs discovered that some of their possessions and money were missing from the house, in particular the pension payment that had been lying on the windowsill (1100 rubles), 2200 rubles which were lying elsewhere, and also 14000 rubles which had been set aside for household expenses and groceries delivered to the Mutsolgov family store. Also missing from the house was a mobile phone. About 15 boxes of mineral water and juice, cigarettes, and about 2000 in earnings were also taken from the back room of the store, which is situated alongside the house.

That same morning, under analogous circumstances, Abubakar Barkinkhoev was detained in his home at 40 Balkoeva street, Karabulak. In the course of the special operation unidentified

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people seized an automobile and a mobile phone from the Barkinkhoevs without presenting any sort of documentation.

Deputy prosecutor of Karabulak A.Z. Khashegulgov told O. Orlov and E. Musaeva, representatives of Memorial who appealed to him the very same day, that the prosecutor's office of Karabulak had not been informed of any operations conducted in Karabulak in the Mutsolgov, Gaparkhoev, Pugoev, Aushev, or Barkinkhoev households. On the evening of 6 July the Karabulak prosecutor provided no information on the location of all the above-mentioned detainees.

On the morning of 7 July, Aliskhan Pugoev and Adam and Magomed Aushev were freed. According to their relatives, they had been held during this time in the building of the 6th division of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia. The location of Zaur Mutsolgov, Mairbek Gaparkhoev, and Abubakar Barkinkhoev, however, remained unknown. The prosecutors’ offices of both Karabulak and the Republic of Ingushetia were unable to provide information on the fate of these people to their relatives, to human rights workers from Memorial, or to S.A. Gannushkina, a member of the Commission on Human Rights for the President of the RF.

Only on 9 July, three days after the detentions, did relatives of Z. Mutsolgov receive notification in the Karabulak prosecutor's office from M.N. Lapotnikov19, investigator of the General Prosecutor's Office of the RF, that Zaur Mutsolgov had been detained on suspicion of criminal activity covered under Article 205 of the criminal code of the RF (terrorism).

Relatives of M. Gaparkhoev and A. Barkinkhoev learned the fate of their detained relatives even later. All detentions (which were, practically speaking, abductions) which took place on the morning of 6 July in Karabulak were carried out as part of an investigation by the Administration of the General Prosecutor of the RF for the North Caucasus (for a recounting of the methods used during the investigation, see below). In April 2005, Gaparkhoev and Barkinkhoev were found guilty in court on Articles 205 (terrorism) and 209 (banditism) of the criminal code of the RF and were sentenced to thirteen and a half and fourteen years imprisonment, respectively.

On 15 July, 2004, the human rights organization Memorial made the following observations in its statement:

"While it is not in doubt that law-enforcement agencies had to undertake measures to identify and detain the participants, organizers, and accomplices in the attack on the Republic of Ingushetia on 21-22 June, it is equally undeniable that such measures should have been undertaken strictly according to the laws of the RF. The operation in question was conducted in a way strongly reminiscent of a bandit attack. Moreover, organs of the public prosecutor's offices have demonstrated that they are incapable and/or unwilling to end the basest of human rights violations, and to bring the guilty to justice. The problems of arbitrariness and lawlessness are today becoming just as relevant for Ingushetia as for the neighboring Chechnya, and the social consequences of this are dire indeed."

Unfortunately, acting Minister of the Interior of Ingushetia B.T. Khamkhoev evidently does not share this viewpoint. Thus, in reply to O.P. Orlov20, Chairman of the Board of Memorial, he asserted that M. Gaparkhoev and Z. Mutsolgov were members of armed groups and took part in murders (note that this was said before proven in court).

19 Investigator Lapotnikov joined the ranks of the investigative group of the General Prosecutor of the RF tasked to the North Caucasus to carry out criminal investigation of the attack on Ingushetia which took place the night from 21 to 22 June, 2004.20 Reply no. 34/1-1439 from 22 July, 2004.

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The acting Minister prefers not to acknowledge the fact that such lawlessness is unaccepted even when dealing with participants of armed groups. The assertion of the acting Minister that "measures for their detention were carried out in accordance with the relevant laws and under conditions of an emergency situation" is highly surprising especially for a jurist. We are presented here with the basest of crimes, and references to an "emergency situation"21 can have nothing to do with this. Even more incomprehensible is the fact that the acting Minister apparently believes that the suffering from lawlessness of many residents of his republic uninvolved in the attack of the boeviks is unworthy of his attention. The similar attitude of high officials toward the upholding of the law has created an atmosphere in which the threat to the lives and security of peaceful, law-abiding citizens comes not only from bandits, but from the very people who, one should think, were sworn to uphold law and order.

On 20 July, 2004, unidentified armed men, mostly Ingush, burst into the yard of Bashir Velkhiev (Barsuki village, Dzhabagieva street) without presenting any sort of documentation. Without explanation they seized Bashir and his brother Bekkhan. During the seizure a large sum of money disappeared from the house. The Velkhiev brothers were taken to the Directorate for the Fight against Organized Crime (UBOP) of the Ingush Interior Ministry, where they were beaten and tortured, including electric shocks22. The torture was administered by both Ingush agents of UBOP and members of the Interior Ministry who had come on business from other regions of Russia. The police first ascertained from the brothers their whereabouts on the night of 21 to 22 June. Then, when the brothers had proven their alibi, the police began coercing them to work secretly with law-enforcement agencies. Bashir Velkhiev died in room no. 1723 as a result of his beatings and torture. Bekkhan Velkhiev was released the next day in serious condition.

The Nazran public prosecutor opened criminal investigation no. 04560079 in response to the death of Bashir Velkhiev and Bekkhan Velkhiev's testimony on the illegal violent coercion they had undergone, concerning the unidentified agents of the Russian Interior Ministry and UBOP of the Ingush Interior Ministry, according to Article 286.3, paragraph C (Exceeding one's authority with serious consequences). As of 1 July, 2005, those responsible for the death of Bashir Velkhiev had not been identified. The preliminary criminal investigation has been halted.

The same day on 20 July 2004, Beslan Arapkhanov, a tractor operator, was beaten and executed in his own home in front of his wife and seven small children, at dawn, around 4:00 in the village Galashki in the Sunzhensk district of Ingushetia. It seems it was a case of mistaken identity. Law-enforcement agents were trying to detain the boevik Ruslan Khuchbarov, who had lived at 11 Partizanskaya street some years before. Instead, they shot the tractor operator Arapkhanov, who was living at 1 Partizanskaya street. Immediately after the murder, an officer and two soldiers (in the capacity of witnesses) entered the house. The officer identified himself

21 The notion of an "emergency situation" is contained in the federal law "On the defense of the population and territories from emergency situations of a natural and man-made character". By this is understood "a situation on a certain territory which has arisen due to an accident, a dangerous natural phenomenon, a catastrophe, a natural disaster or other adversity which could result in or have resulted in human death, damage to health or the surrounding natural environment, significant material losses, or disturbance of people's living conditions".22 The numerous signs of beating and torture found on Bekkhan's body are detailed in the report of the forensic medical examination.23 Bashir's place of death was indicated in the Decree on the Confession of the Victim of his brother, Bekkhan Velkhiev, which was signed by investigator of the Nazran public prosecutor's ofrfice R.Yu. Albakov. According to the forensic medical examination, Bashir's death was caused by sharp cardiovascular collapse. Numerous signs of beating and torture were found on the corpse.

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as Kostenko, an investigator for the FSB who was sent from Zheleznovodsk, and presented a search warrant for the house of Ruslan Khuchbarov: 11 Partizanskaya street.

This crime adduces the most unequivocal and convincing evidence that such "simple" methods are dangerous not only for those who fall into the "counterterrorism" meat grinder, but for society at large as well. The "law-enforcement agents" let Ruslan Khuchbarov slip away. This man, known by his handle "Colonel", led the group of terrorists who seized School no. 1 in Beslan on 1 September, 2005.

From the lawyer of another suspect, the resident of stanitsa Sleptsovskaya Solsbek Gelogaev, Memorial received a copy of a petition to hold criminally responsible the law-enforcement agents of Ingushetia who tortured his client. On 20 August, 2004, unidentified law-enforcement agents detained Gelogaev and held him for four days. First they demanded ransom money from his relatives while they tortured Gelogaev: they administered electric shocks, suspended him upside down from the ceiling, and beat him with sticks and rubber truncheons at the kidneys and on his head and arms. Then they demanded that he confess to participation in illegal armed formations and sign a statement asserting that several residents of his village were members of illegal armed formations. They threatened to rape Gelogaev's wife and send his daughter to an orphanage in Russia under a Russian surname. As a result, Gelogaev "confessed" to blowing up a car next to the house of the deputy head of the administration of the Sunzhensk district and signed a statement to this extent in the FSB building in the city Magas.

The forensic medical expert Shadyzheva characterized Gelogaev's bodily injuries as "light injuries". As a result of her conclusions, the investigator for the Sunzhensk district prosecutor's office Dobriev refused to open a criminal investigation into the source of Gelogaev's injuries.

In the end of 2004 another abduction was carried out in Ingushetia. At night of December 4/5 at about 1:20 in the town Malgobek from the house at Gagarina street, 24 representatives of unidentified security agency abducted Bersanov Adam, born 1977.

The military servicemen arrived to the house of Bersanov by two minibuses “Gazel” of white color and two YAZ cars (‘tabletka’) of grey color and a “Niva” car of white color. All cars had no state registration numbers. A large group of armed servicemen in camouflage and in masks broke into the house, grasped Adam Bersanov and forced him out of the house barefoot in thin sport trousers and a T-shirt. The mother tried to give her son warm clothes, but the military servicemen, pointing at her with guns pushed her in the back room.

Bersanov was put in a car and driven in the direction of Nazran. The mother of the detained immediately turned to the ROVD of Malgobek region, but her application was not accepted and she was sent to the prosecutor’s office, where she filed a complaint to the regional prosecutor Cherbezhev.

In the meantime, according to the information of Ingush website www.ingushetiya.ru the caravan with the military servicemen, who detained Bersanov was stopped at one of the checkpoints at the exit of Malgobek area. The servicemen presented the militiamen the IDs of FSB and announced that they were taking the detained to the town of Magas.

On December 5, the mother of Bersanov Adam turned for help to the republican prosecution office, where she was told that her son was detained by the personnel of FSB in the Republic Ingushetia. However, when she turned to FSB, she was told that they had nothing to do with the detainment of her son and they did not have such a person under their custody.

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As of September 20, 2005 the relatives have no information of Adam’s whereabouts.

It should be noted that December 5 was not the first detainment of Bersanov. The personnel of security agencies of Ingushetia detained him in the summer of 2004, after the raid of boeviks at night of June 21-22. Having interrogated Bersanov they released him on the day of the detainment. He was again detained in September after hostage-taking in Beslan. This time again, he was released shortly after a rather superficial interrogation.

The regional prosecution of Malgobek district of Republic of Ingushetia instigated a criminal case № 04540072, however, within 6 months the investigation was unable to establish the kidnappers of the whereabouts of the kidnapped. On June 14, 2005 Bersanova’s complaint to Malgobek municipal court about the inefficiency of prosecution was rejected. The cassation of the Malgobek court decision was not satisfied by the court collegium.

2. Methods used at the inquests and investigations of residents of the Republic of Ingushetia suspected of terrorism and of participation in illegal armed units

After the Beslan tragedy, Ingushetia found itself on the black list of unreliable republics, has become a permanent area of the state policy of counter-terror. Torture in the places of preliminary detainment in respect of the residents of Ingushetia has acquired a systemic character. Here, just like in Chechnya, a conveyer of violence and of fabrication of criminal cases has been put into motion.

In Ingushetia the leadership of law-enforcement agencies redoubled its efforts to demonstrate its effectiveness in fighting terrorism. Law-enforcement agencies and special services of the North Caucasus republics were faced with the task of eliminating or bringing to justice participants in terrorist activities. One is left with the impression that, in fulfilling this task, law-enforcement agencies have completely abandoned the boundaries of law, inasmuch as they commit gravest violations of the inalienable rights.

Below we summarize the main characteristics of "counterterrorism operations" in Ingushetia deducted from the analysis of the information at Memorial’s disposal on unlawful detentions and abductions, complaints of the accused, their lawyers and relatives, and information and documents detailing cases of beatings and torture of detainees.

1. As in Chechnya, representatives of law-enforcement agencies often detain unlawfully people suspected of participating in illegal armed formations. The agents do not present any documentation or explain the motives for the detention and do not reveal the location to which the detainees are taken. Relatives of detainees do not know whether the FSB agents or bandits have taken their loved ones, and have no idea where they are located. Detainees usually "disappear" for some time (from several hours to several days).

2. Unlike Chechnya, in Ingushetia a substantial fraction of unlawfully detained (or abducted) people are "discovered" later in provisional detention facilities; not infrequently in North Osetia. Many of the abducted disappear without a trace.

3. Law-enforcement agents attempt to obtain confessions from detainees usually by the application of savage beatings and torture. There is ample witness testimony to suggest that

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detainees have been subjected to this treatment on the premises of the UBOP24, the Ingush Interior Ministry, in the Nazran police department, in the basement of the FSB building in Magas, in provisional detention facilities in North Osetia, and in locations of unlawful detention. A part of these cases have been documentarily confirmed.

4. The lawyer “on duty”25 at the investigations makes no record of the application of torture to suspect; neither does he require that the suspect receive medical treatment or undergo forensic medical examination to verify his condition. At this time relatives, more often than not, do not know the location of detainees and cannot get him a different lawyer. Even when a lawyer is hired by relatives, he is kept from seeing his client under various pretexts until the suspect has signed a confession.

5. The suspect is forced, under torture, to admit to the crimes of which he is accused (also to other as crimes registered as undisclosed with the local law-enforcement agencies), and is required to name people he knows to be involved in illegal activities or to incriminate other suspects of the investigation. "Even the most hardened people say it is impossible to bear this torture. Sooner or later, everyone breaks," said a lawyer working with this category of suspects. The human rights center Memorial has information on several cases when a suspect was delivered in serious condition to the hospital. There is evidence that, in addition to the beatings and torture, the detainee or arrestee is subjected to psychological pressure. For example, he may be threatened with sexual violence against himself or against his wife. Such threats are the most effective arguments in favor of "confession".

6. In the midst of the physical violence and psychological pressure, the man under investigation is told it is better for him to "cooperate" with the investigation and sign everything. Then the investigator can try to "help" him by remedying the situation after the matter has been turned over to the courts.

7. Confessions are usually signed in the FSB building or in the office of the criminal investigator and are then verified in the presence of lawyers. The detainee is not tortured at this time. He is warned, however, that should he refuse confession he will be "worked over" even more heavily. Should the detainee begin to refuse to give a statement as early as the preliminary investigation, the threats are made into reality. Suspects are instructed on the details of the crimes they have committed and are told what exactly they must say in their statements during the investigation.

8. Usually, the lawyer brought in by the relatives is granted access to the suspect only after the suspect has signed a confession. Even if the lawyer knows about the unlawful methods to which his client has been subjected, he often will not report this cruel treatment, fearing for his own safety. Some individuals do resolve to stand up to this system, but their petitions are rejected, and appeals to the General Prosecutor, the Commissioner for Human Rights, and Duma deputies go without attention.

9. It is the confession of the accused, in which he incriminates himself, which is the primary evidence of his guilt.

10. A lawyer is unlikely to be able to help his client at the stage of courtroom investigation if his client has incriminated himself under torture during the preliminary investigation. Until second half of 2005 suspects charged under Articles 205 (terrorism), 208 (participation in an illegal armed formation), and 209 (banditism), are, beyond rare exceptions, not given the right to a trial by jury. This is because, in 2004-2005 for more than a year, the President of Ingushetia did not

24 Department for combat of organized crime25 Appointed by investigation according to article 51 of the Criminal Procedural Code of the RF

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approve a list of jurors for the Republic of Ingushetia, in violation of Articles 4 and 5 of the federal law "On jurors in federal courts in the general jurisdiction of the Russian Federation". Even if the matter is taken up by a court and jury, the question of the admissibility of evidence is decided in the absence of the panel of jurors (Article 335 of the criminal code of the RF). Lawyers and defendants are not allowed to discuss in front of the jury that the confession was obtained by torturing the defendant. Without this knowledge, it is difficult for jurors to arrive at a fair finding.

11. As is shown by the matter of Magomed Khamkhoev (see below), even when the application of violence to the accused is brought into the court's investigation, the court is incapable of discovering falsifications or of making a proper assessment of the violation of the law as it relates to the accused. Thus, the court cannot make a fair sentencing in the matter.

12. It is very difficult to document and authenticate instances of torture in provisional detention facilities, since independent doctors are not allowed to see the suspect. It is very difficult to obtain independent medical examinations.

13. Specialists from the International Committee of Red Cross do not visit suspects in provisional detention facilities. It was explained to Memorial staff by representatives of the organization in Ingushetia that "in 2004 the International Committee of Red Cross encountered problems which impeded this kind of activity from being undertaken in accordance with the standard criteria of the organization. As a result, the International Committee of Red Cross has had to temporarily cease visiting detainees."

In such a system, there are few chances for the guilty to be brought to justice and the innocent to be acquitted. Petitions to federal oversight agencies are forwarded to the oversight agencies of the republic, and are tabled by the very people who seek to conceal the violence and arbitrariness of law-enforcement agencies and special services.

In cases when security services fear they may encounter armed resistance, special operations are planned from the beginning such that the suspects are killed on the spot. Not a single one of the widely known and influential boeviks was taken alive, even though they could have provided investigators with valuable information. In such cases the lives of a large number of people are invariably placed in imminent danger, since members of the suspect's family, other people living in the building, and residents of neighboring homes are never evacuated.

A typical example is the special operation for the "neutralization" of the boevik Magomed Khashiev. The operation was conducted by agents of Russian law-enforcement agencies on 10 October, 2004, in the Gamurzievsk municipal region of Nazran (19 Chabiev street).

The family of Said-Magomed Khashiev (born 1977) was living temporarily at this address. Khashiev had two wives and four children. On the previous evening Said-Magomed's distant relative, Magomed Khashiev, arrived with his wife and four children and asked to shelter for a few days. Magomed Khashiev was wanted by law-enforcement agencies as a putative participant in the attack on Ingushetia on the night of 21 to 22 June, 2004. Said-Magomed did not want to let the guests in, explaining that he didn't want to put his family in danger. The men argued, but in the end Magomed Khashiev remained.

On the evening of 10 October representatives of federal and Ingush law-enforcement agencies arrived and surrounded with armored vehicles the neighborhood on which Said-Magomed Khashiev's house was located. A group of soldiers in masks (approximately seven men) entered the house and cursorily surveyed the rooms in which the Khashiev wives and children were

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located, exited the house, and opened fire on the building with automatic weapons, grenade launchers attached to automatic weapons, and handheld grenade launchers. The women screamed at the soldiers to cease fire on account of the children in the house. The bombardment continued until the roof collapsed. In the ruins were three wounded women and eight children. They managed to crawl out of the wreckage. The soldiers did not help them, but shouted at the blood-soaked women and children to go faster, and continued to shoot. After about 40 minutes the soldiers were replaced by agents of Ingush law-enforcement agencies, who then delivered to the hospital in Nazran the Khashiev wives and children, who had all miraculously survived. Magomed and Said-Magomed Khashiev were killed.

In planning this operation, representatives of security agencies did not attempt to ensure the safety of local residents or avoid possible civilian casualties. In order to "neutralize" one boevik, they were prepared to kill three women and eight children. Even when they had the chance, law-enforcement agents did not evacuate them.

"Counter-terrorism operations" conducted in this way have the gravest of consequences.

The most evident conclusion is that the cruel treatment of detainees and arrestees during the preliminary investigation inevitably leads to judicial mistakes. Thus, in the matter of the boevik attack on Ingushetia on 21 to 22 June, 2004, attorneys expected four of the thirteen defendants to be acquitted due to the total absence of evidence. "There is no evidence of the participation of these suspects in the attack on Ingushetia. Moreover, in the remaining nine cases the evidence is unconvincing. It seems that not a single one of the attack's organizers and not a single leader of boeviks has been detained," explained staff of the human rights organization. The hopes of the lawyers proved to be unjustified, and there is serious ground to suspect that innocent men went behind bars for long prison terms based on fabricated cases. One can only guess what kind of people these men shall become if and when they return from prison is anyone's guess.

Meanwhile, today — as during the "counter-terrorism operation" of the 1930s after Kirov was assassinated on 1 December, 1934 — the personal confession of the accused is still the primary evidence of his guilt. Any doubts as to the legitimacy of this approach are treated by supporters of "effective" methods of fighting terrorism as attempts to defend criminals. The Directorate of Public Prosecutions and independent courts are supposed to defend, not only the arrested from arbitrariness, but the investigative organs as well — from possible mistakes. The victims of these mistakes are not only the convicted, but all of us, everyone who is at liberty.

In contrast to 1937, in Russia today there is a real, not imaginary, terrorist underground. The arrest and conviction of innocents means that the real criminals are going free, and are given the chance to commit new crimes.

The second consequence is already known to us from Chechnya: these "counter-terrorism" measures destabilize the situation and only strengthen the position of the terrorist underground. News of the cruelty of investigations and judicial arbitrariness becomes immediately known across the republic. The terrorist underground is provided with a recruitment base and the chance to attract those who have suffered themselves or who want to avenge their relatives. For others the motive to take up arms may be one of personal protest against the arbitrariness of the security services. Many residents of Ingushetia, in conversations with representatives of Memorial, have asserted that the magnitude of the boeviks' raid on 21-21 June is explained namely by this effect — as an answer to the violence of law-enforcement agencies on the territory of Ingushetia during 2003 and 2004.

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Today the grave foundations for a civil war are being laid. Ingushetia is a small republic and the "Ingushization" of the conflict could happen very quickly. In any case, the intra-civilian antagonisms which have been ignited in the republics seized by this conflict will be doing their destructive work across the entire North Caucasus for many years to come.

3. Ingushetia in 2005: examples of detention operations against those suspected of terrorist activity and participation in illegal armed formations, and of the investigations of their crimes

In this section of the report we will adduce information collected by Memorial on individual cases where there are grounds to assert or to suspect there has been unlawful detention, torture, and falsification of evidence against those suspected of participating in illegal armed formations or of terrorist activity. We have included only the most revealing and evident cases in the report. Our information, incidentally, is quite meager. Officials prefer not to answer the inquiries of human rights workers. Victims of torture and their relatives and lawyers all fear for their safety and prepare to remain silent. Therefore, in some matters there is less information than in others.

We also introduce other types of evidence. Memorial has received statements regarding torture conducted in provisional detention facilities from the people accused of crimes. The script of "working" with the man under investigation, the assortment of torture methods, and other illicit methods of physical and psychological coercion are repeated from instance to instance. Occasionally, the descriptions of the premises in which the people were tortured are in general agreement. The information we have collected is more than enough to conclude that there must be a comprehensive investigation of methods employed by law-enforcement agencies in Ingushetia and North Osetia-Alania in the fight against terrorism and illegal armed formations.

For a real investigation of this sort is to take place — a review in which the examiners are not afraid to disclose instances of violation of the law and to hold officials responsible should such instances be discovered — there is one prerequisite which is, at the moment, absent: and this is political will.

3.1. The unlawful detention and death of Adam Gorchkhanov

On 23 May, 2005, around 6:00 in the village Plievo in the Nazran district of Ingushetia, Adam Gorchkhanov (born 1968) was abducted from the Gorchkhanov house at 6 Gorchkhanov street by unidentified agents of an Ingush law-enforcement agency. Adam Gorchkhanov was mentally challenged.

According to relatives, representatives of security services arrived at their home early in the morning in several UAZ automobiles, a white Gazel microbus, and an armored personnel carrier. There were more than forty of servicemen. Several of them, in masks, spoke in both Russian and Ingush. None of them identified themselves or presented any documents.

The security servicemen burst into Adam's room and began beating him, demanding that he surrender his weapon. At that moment, his younger brother Bashir Gorchkhanov (born 1970)

26

was being beaten in the neighboring room. An unsanctioned search was conducted in the house, and two photo albums and several documents, among them the passports of Adam and Bashir, were seized. These events were all recorded on video camera. Upon finishing their search the visitors declared they had found two pistols. However, the official record of the search was not given to the owners of the house to sign, and the Gorchkhanovs saw no witnesses. The security servicemen left with Adam Gorchkhanov. They did not inform relatives where they would take him.

The Gorchkhanovs appealed that same day with written statements about Adam's abduction to the district and republican public prosecutor's offices and to the local branch of the FSB of Ingushetia. They also addressed declarations to General Prosecutor of the RF Ustinov, Director of the FSB of the RF Patrushev, and Deputy of the Duma of Ingushetia Kodzoev. A.M. Marzaganov, senior assistant to the Nazran prosecutor, released a decree on the appointment of a forensic medical examination of the bodily injuries of Bashir Gorchkanov. In the decree he cited the possible complicity of agents of the OMON of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia in Adam's abduction and Bashir's beating26.

Only after three days, on 26 May, did relatives learn through they lawyer that Adam Gorchkhanov was in SIZO (temporary detainment facility) in the city Vladikavkaz. On 27 May he ‘disappeared’ again. As was revealed later, after Adam was slated for preventive punishment, he was transported illegally from preliminary detainment to the UBOP of Vladikavkaz.

On 28 May the relatives learnt that Adam was located in the Central Hospital of the Republic of North Osetia-Alania. According to police, Adam jumped from the fourth floor of the UBOP building in Vladikavkaz. Hospital workers reported that Gorchkhanov had been hospitalized with a serious closed craniocerebral injury27.

On 31 May, Adam Gorchkhanov died of his injuries. According to his relatives, there were no fractions on his body, but there were numerous signs of beating and torture. The relatives, however, did not wish to order a second forensic medical examination, and buried the body.

An inquiry was made on this matter by the Chairman of the President of the RF's Council for Assistance to the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights. The inquiry was answered28

by N.I. Shepel, Deputy General Prosecutor of the RF, in which he wrote that A.A. Gorchkhanov was detained on suspicion of crimes covered by Article 209.2 (banditism) of the criminal code of the RF. In the course of the search, and in the presence of witnesses29, a pistol was discovered in the Gorchkhanov home which had been stolen during an armed attack on a warehouse of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia on the night of 21-22 June, 2004. It follows from this reply that the search of the house was unsanctioned. It was only on the following day that the Lenin district court of Vladikavkaz retroactively declared the search to be lawful, due to its urgency. On 25 May the same court ruled that Gorchkhanov should be confined under guard as a preventive measure. In that period (24 May) Gorchkhanov, who as far as his relatives knew had "disappeared" leaving no clue about his fate, testified told investigators where the weapon was cached. On 27 May, on orders of the public prosecutor, Gorchkhanov was taken to the department against organized crime of the Interior Ministry of North Osetia-Alania. It was here that he threw himself from the fourth-floor window. The findings of the forensic medical

26 Decree on the appointment of forensic medical examination, 23 May 2005.27 Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the Migration and Rights network of Memorial, telephoned the intensive care unit of the hospital and spoke with Dr. Kokaev, the doctor on duty.28 Reply no. 41-2/139-05, 22 June 05.29 The Gorchkhanovs did no see any witnesses at the search. Moreover, the written record of the findings of the search was not given them to sign. This search cannot be considered lawful.

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examination were that death was caused by a brain contusion as a result of craniocerebral trauma. "The abrasions and fractures on the body are the effects of blunt hard objects with a large surface, most likely acquired by a staggered fall from a significant height."

3.2. The Case of Adam Parchiev

Parchiev Adam, born in 1974, a resident of the town Nazran, is accused of participating in an armed raid of boeviks on Ingushetia at night of June 21-22 2004.

According to the prosecution, at night on June 21-22 he together with his friend boevik Tsetchoev Ramazan occupied a position in the building of Trade center “the 21st century”. Parchiev was located on the ground floor of the building, from there he and the other fighters who shot from different positions, subjected to fire an armed personnel carrier (APC) with Russian military servicemen. Eventually the APC was set on fire, three military servicemen were injured and then killed by ‘control shots’ in the heads.

Prosecution claims that Parchiev was involved in the raid by invitation of his neighbor Tsuroev Akhmet, a member of wahhabi movement, who promised him 300 USD for the assignment, the content of which Parchiev did not know. During the first interrogations, in the presence of Laura Khumaryats, a lawyer invited by prosecution, Parchiev confided to committing the crime and explained the above details to the prosecution.

During subsequent interrogations in the presence of the defender, invited by relatives, Parchiev denied his previous confessions and his participation in the incriminated crimes and explained that he signed confession under torture.

According to Parchiev and his relatives, all night of June 21-22 he together with his elderly mother was in the area of his house in Nazran, Gekalo street, 68. When the shooting started at about 22:45 the older brother of Adam Parchiev, Alikhan, came to his mother to check whether everyone was fine in the house, and then decided to go back to his own family, since his wife and children were at home alone. Alikhan promised his mother that he would call her when he is back home.

However, during the attack the mobile connection in Nazran was not functioning well, so Alikhan was unable to call home. After some time his mother became very anxious and decided to walk to Alikhan’s place (Alikhan lived 2-2,5 kilometers from their house). Adam accompanied her.

300 meters before Alikhan Parchiev’s house (near the warehouses of MVD, so-called KhOZO) Adam and his mother were stopped by the local people. They warned Adam Parchiev and his mother that there were boeviks on the territory of KhOZO and advancing further was dangerous. One of the residents, Abukar Tsoloev, brought them his landline telephone and offered to call relatives and find out whether Alikhan had contacted them. It turned out that Alikhan had, indeed, called and he got home safe and sound. Having found this out, mother and son Parchiev went back. Having reached home, Adam spent sometime chatting with his neighbors on the bench outside their house and the went inside to sleep.

Abukar Tsoloev testified in the court that he saw Parchiev with his mother and that he brought them his landline telephone. Moreover, there is a breakdown of telephone calls, provided by the

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telephone station (Department for Electric connections of Republic Ingushetia) which documents that at 0:20 a call was made from the Tsoloev phone to the number of Parchiev family (22 86 70)

Alibi of Parchiev was supported in court by other witnesses (16 people), who saw him that night with his mother. The lawyer-defender of Parchiev requested that these and other people are interrogated by investigation, which was done, however, the protocols of these interrogations were not attached to the case. In the court the witnesses confirmed their being interrogated during preliminary investigation.

Notably, according to Parchiev and his relatives, he was illegally detained on August 3 2004, however, the investigation claims that Adam was detained on August 6 2004 at 10 p.m. The relatives claims are supported by the fact that on August 5 they had already concluded a contract with their lawyer. The lawyer started searching for Adam at this point was considered ‘disappeared’. Contradicting the claims of prosecution is the fact that according to the protocol, the first interrogation of Parchiev as a suspect was carried out on August 6 at 16:30, i.e. before the time of his official detainment. According to Parchiev, it was exactly between the actual and the official time of detainment that he was cruelly tortured and forced to slander himself.

The lawyer Laura Khumaryats did not document the infliction of torture on her defendant. The lawyer hired by the relatives, was denied access to his defendant until he had signed his confessions and all investigating measures had been carried out. However, a video recording of investigation on the site, renders well the traces of beatings.

In the court the witnesses Evloev and Gaparkhoev, who work as night watchmen in the Trade Center “The 21 century” and who were in the area of the building at night of June 21-22 2004 testified that there were no boyeviks in Trade center that night. Moreover, the victims – military servicemen A. Volkov and V. Manko - testified that they were subjected to fire from the building of the flour factory and cerial processing factory, located nearby (not from the building of Trade Center “21st century”).

Thus, the charges against Adam Parchiev are based on self-slander and confession of another alleged fighter Tsetchoev, who also claims that made it under duress.

On August 3, 2005 the Jury of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ingushetia found Parchiev guilty of crimes stipulated by article 209 (banditism), but “deserving leniency” and sentenced Parchiev Adam to 8 years in prison.

3.3. The case of Magomed Khamkhoev

On 1 June, 2005, the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, chaired by Judge M.B. Imiev, found Magomed Khamkhoev guilty of participating in the illegal armed formation "Khalifat", which he joined on the invitation of B.Kh. Nalgiev, of aiding participants in illegal armed formations, and of exploiting an opportunity for unimpeded travel to bring weapons and members of an illegal armed formation through police checkpoints.

In addition, the Court found Khamkhoev guilty of participating in a terrorist act on 3 December, 2003. The terrorist act was perpetrated against police officers attached to the migration division of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia. The organizers of the terrorist act assigned Khamkhoev the role of telephoning Nalgiev that day around 4 o'clock in the afternoon by mobile phone. Khamkhoev told them that a bus carrying police officers had left the IDP camp Satsita (a

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temporary living place). The bus was attacked; two police officers received light injuries as a result of the explosion.

The convict and his attorney claim that the matter was completely fabricated. The primary evidence against Khamkhoev was the confessions he made during preliminary investigations. In court Khamkhoev stated, however, that he made these confessions as a result of being beaten and tortured.

The Court found Khamkhoev guilty on Articles 205.2 paragraph A (terrorism), 208.2 (participation in illegal armed formations), and 222.2 (unlawful possession and transport of firearms and ammunition) of the criminal code of the RF.

In aggregate for the various crimes the Court sentenced Khamkhoev to 10 years of imprisonment in a high-security correctional facility.

Below, we briefly outline the arguments of the prosecution and defense.

In the opinion of investigators, Khamkhoev's participation in the organization of the explosion on 3 December is evidenced by the following:

1. Khamkhoev's confession during the preliminary investigation that he had committed the crimes.

2. The fact that on the day the bus was blown up Khamkhoev, who worked as a guard at Satsita IDP camp, suggested that his acquaintances A. Daskhoev, L. Akaeva, and Z. Magomaev travel to Nazran in his automobile. In the opinion of the prosecution, this was to avoid unnecessary casualties when the bus was attacked.

3. According to the prosecution, after arriving in Nazran, Khamkhoev used a pretext to telephone his colleague Bakaev, who was on duty in Khamkhoev's place at the Satsita IDP camp. Bakaev informed him of the attack on the bus. In order not to give himself away, Khamkhoev acted surprised and upset when relating this news to Daskhoev, after which, having dropped off Magomaeva, he returned to the scene.

4. At the scene, Khamkhoev approached investigators and asked if the second mine had exploded, although at that moment the existence of the second mine was still unknown. Khamkhoev did not show up for his next shift, afraid he had been found out. Below we try to disentangle this evidence:

1. The confession

In court Khamkhoev repudiated his previous testimony and declared that his admissions of guilt in his confession and during interrogation were untrue and had been made under duress.

According to Magomed Khamkhoev, he was detained not on 19 July, as the court asserted, but on 15 July. His relatives confirm this. The defendant states that it was in these very four days between the actual and official dates of his detention that he was cruelly tortured, and thus had been made to slander himself.

During his statement to the court, which was passed to Memorial by his mother, Khamkhoev asserted that his captors continued to beat and torture him for three months after his detention.

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The resulting bodily injuries, according to his own expression, included "a concussion of the left side of the head and of the kidney, broken lower right rib, and loss of hearing in the right ear".

The following is excerpted from M. Khamkhoev's statement to the court, which was given in the course of judicial investigation (and passed to Memorial by Khamkhoev's mother in May 2005).

"When they took the bag off my head, I was in a building with no windows. The interrogation and torture began. I don't know how much time passed, whether it was day or night. They asked me questions and tortured me, torture and questions which I couldn't answer... After some time I was again put into a car, and after about thirty minutes in the car they took the bag off my head and I saw a sign on which "MAGAS" was written. In Magas I was taken to the FSB building...I was in a room with four other people. Three of them were in masks, one without. The one sitting across from me slid a paper across to me and said it was a confession and I should sign it, and then everything would be fine. I read the paper, it was about crimes I didn't commit; also it said I had turned myself in. I refused to sign it and requested a lawyer. The man went out, after which began another endless round of video-taped interrogation. When I understood they wanted to humiliate [i.e., rape; -Memorial] me, I agreed to sign... I signed because I would rather die or confess to something I didn't do than to bear such a shame. That was at night. In the morning the one called the leader came in and said that I should recopy everything in my own hand, and address it to the head of the local branch of the FSB."

According to Khamkhoev, the investigator told him he had to sign the statement, and then he, the investigator, would try to help Khamkhoev and get the matter to the prosecutor as soon as possible. "If I didn't sign the confession, he wouldn't be able to help me and they would use me for the attack on 21-22 June, 2004, and could do obscene things to me — in other words, to take away my human dignity [i.e., to rape him; -Memorial].

"In the evening of that day they took me to the prosecutor. They explained to me on the way that it was better to keep silent, and to say that I had come voluntarily of my own will on that day. In the prosecutor's office they told me that in court, when the restraining measures were being decided, [I should say] that I was detained not on 15 July but on 19 July, 2004, in other words that I had turned myself in."

Further, in the words of the defendant, the investigator recommended a lawyer to Khamkhoev — Irina Ostaeva — a "good and inexpensive defender".

"When I explained to the lawyer what had happened, the things that had been done to me, and asked her to inform her acquaintances in the prosecutor's office and the MVD, she said she would. After four days, when the FSB investigator came, he began to scream and advised me not to talk about the beatings. He said he was helping me but I wasn't listening to him, that he could be taken off the case and the case would be given to another investigator, that they could add Articles 317, 105, and 209 of the criminal code to the charges and link me to the crimes of 21-22 June. The lawyer who was assigned to me was in their pocket, I knew it, since everything I'd asked her to tell my relatives had been handed over to the FSB investigator...

"After one and a half months I was taken to the stanitsa "Orzhdonikidzovskaya and was shown the scene of the terrorist act. They explained my role in it and what I should say, told me to remember this place, where I had supposedly taken Beslan Nalgiev and his companions. Then they showed me an address in Karabulak and explained that I should say I had been there several times. There was no one there for me to turn to for help; I had to do what they said. I decided that the matter would reach the court sooner or later, and that there I would tell everything as it was. At every interrogation by the investigator of prosecutor's office of

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Ingushetia, an investigator from the FSB and a lawyer, who were directing my testimony, were also present.

"I wrote a statement about the things that had been done to me to the General Prosecutor of Russia, Ustinov, about how the special services will do anything to obtain their result, and gave the statement to the administrator of my preliminary detainment facility. Alas, I received not only no answer, but also no official number for the outgoing document. The next day they took me out of solitary to another place, I don't know where, interrogated and tortured me for two days. And the torture was longer than the interrogations, I mean to say by this that it was not an interrogation, but merely an act of intimidation because of what I'd written. There I got a concussion on the right side of my head, injuries to the head and the body... When they took me back to solitary, I asked the administrator there to get me medical aid, since I had a terrible pain in the head, dizziness, and couldn't eat anything due to my injuries in the area of my stomach and kidneys. The next day they brought in a doctor. She looked over my injuries and I told her everything. But she just gave me two Citromon30 pills and said there was nothing serious. She didn't even check my blood pressure or heart, and she didn't say anything about a medical certificate or paper or mention the beatings in the registration book."

As stated in Khamkhoev's court sentence: "The reasons given in court by M.G. Khamkhoev for changing his testimony — his exposure to unlawful methods of coercion — were a subject of the court's investigation, and the court, having examined these reasons, finds them to be far-fetched and given with the goal of escaping responsibility for his crimes. Khamkhoev's interrogations were conducted according to the norms of procedural criminal law in the presence of a lawyer; moreover, during the entire preliminary investigation the defendant gave successive testimony regarding circumstances before and concurrent with the crimes, as well as the roles and levels of participation of each of the accomplices. The defendant provided details which could not be known except to those who took part in the aforementioned crimes. In addition, the contents of the defendant's testimony is in agreement with the information he provided voluntarily for the record when he gave himself up to authorities, and Khamkhoev confirmed the authenticity of this information when his testimony was checked on the scene in the pesence of a lawyer [who was offered by the investigator; -Memorial] and witnesses."

Umar Khayauri31, the lawyer invited by relatives, believes that the court treated unconscientiously the question of the admissibility of Khamkhoev's testimony from the preliminary investigation. As witnesses to the use of unlawful methods in Khamkhoev's interrogation, the individuals concerned were invited: investigator of the local branch of the FSB Valiev, head of the Sunzhensk police department Khamkhoev, and head of the investigative section of the local branch of the FSB of Ingushetia A.Kh. Khasaunov. According to the lawyer's testimony, investigator Valiev is present in all scenes filmed on video during the investigation of the Khamkhoev case. An admission that these men had acted illegally in the Khamkhoev case would be equivalent to an admission that their subordinates employ forbidden methods of coercion against defendants. Khamkhoev was never given a forensic medical examination.

2. The offer to take Daskhoev, Magomaeva, and Akaeva to Nazran in order to avoid unnecessary casualties

According to the prosecution, Khamkhoev knew about the act of terror which was being prepared and wanted to avoid unnecessary casualties. So he offered to take to Nazran from the

30 Basic painkiller31 He took the case on 15 October, 2004.

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Satsita IDP camp (located near the stanitsa Ordzhonikidzovskaya) his colleague Daskhoev, who worked for the Oktyabrskii police department of North Osetia, Magomaeva, a psychologist in the Satsita administration, and Akaeva, a secretary in the Satsita administration.

According to Khamkhoev, he went to Nazran that day in order to collect the left door to his automobile which an acquaintance had promised him — the door to his car had been totaled in a traffic accident. As he was on his way to Nazran, he as usual offered to give his colleagues Daskhoev, Magomaeva, and Akaeva a lift to the city. Daskhoev and Magomaeva agreed, while Akaeva, who had to stay on at work, went later by bus.

Khamkhoev's lawyer reminded the court that, according to Vainakh32 etiquette, a man traveling somewhere by car is obliged to offer a ride to his acquaintances, especially to his seniors and to women. Khamkhoev acted as a normal polite young man. In fact, it would have been suspicious had Khamkhoev not offered the ride on the day of the explosion.

3. The call to Bakaev and the return to the scene

Both Daskhoev, in his witness testimony, and the defendant himself assert that Khamkhoev never called anyone. In the contrary, it was Bakaev who called him, informed him of what had happened, and asked him to return — which Khamkhoev did.

4. Khamkhoev's inquiry at the scene about the unexploded second mine and his failure to appear for duty following the explosion

According to the prosecution, when Khamkhoev returned to the scene, he approached investigators and asked whether the second mine had exploded. This testimony was given by a witness and victim, A.N. Sadovnikov, who in turn cited Daskhoev. Apparently it was from Daskhoev that Sadovnikov learned that, when Daskhoev and Khamkhoev had arrived on the scene, the defendant asked police officers there whether the second mine had exploded. In court Daskhoev testified that he had had no such conversation with Sadovnikov. Moreover, none of the investigators on the scene could confirm that Khamkhoev had asked such a question. Nevertheless, the court found Sadovnikov's testimony to be authentic.

The testimony of A.M. Pugoev also figured in court. This testimony was given during the preliminary investigation. In his testimony, Pugoev says that Khamkhoev asked whether the second mine had exploded before that mine had been discovered. Seeing people's puzzled reaction, Khamkhoev became worried, quickly returned to his car, and left. In court, however, Pugoev changed his testimony and stated that he hadn't seen the car in which Khamkhoev arrived. At the same time, he confirmed that Khamkhoev had been at the scene and that he was interested in the number of explosions.

It is the opinion of the defense that there was no reliable evidence Khamkhoev had asked this question. Moreover, such a question could not serve as evidence of Khamkhoev's complicity in the explosion. If Khamkhoev were guilty, then it would be the greatest folly for him to approach investigators and ask whether the second mine had detonated. "If he was guilty and really did ask, he ought to be checked for insanity."

***

32 Vainakh is an ethnonym for Chechens and Ingush

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The evidence of Khamkhoev's participation in the illegal armed formation "Khalifat" and transportation of weapons rests on two lines of argument.

1. The boevik Beslan Nalgiev is Magomed Khamkhoev's cousin. According to the record of Khamkhoev's confession, he maintained relations with Nalgiev and was acquainted with the boeviks Gandarov and Geliskhanov (both were killed during a special operation to detain them in Ingushetia).

2. N. Gandarov, brother of the deceased boevik, testified that his brother Isa Gandarov had come to his home with Ruslan Geliskhanov and Beslan Nalgiev. At the wheel of the car was a man with a Kalashnikov machine gun equipped with a grenade launcher. Geliskhanov introduced the man as Magomed Khamkhoev. From what he said it was understood that Khamkhoev worked in the Interior Ministry and was helping them.

Gandarov confirmed his testimony in court, although he stated that the Magomed Khamkhoev about whom they had talked and the defendant were different people. The court found Gandarov's testimony to be insincere, given in order to mitigate Khamkhoev's situation. N. Gandarov is under investigation himself for participation in terrorist activity. According to his lawyer, Gandarov was also tortured to obtain his testimony.

Let us note that since Khamkhoev is one of the most common surnames in Ingushetia, and Magomed one of the most widely used given names, Ingushetia is thus full of namesakes of Magomed Khamkhoev.

Geliskhanov was killed 17 April, 2004. His wife, Z.N. Chemurzieva, testified in court that she did not know Magomed Khamkhoev. In the sentence it says that she signed the record of her interrogation without reading it. The prosecution asserts that Chemurzieva's testimony during the preliminary investigation was the following: Magomed Khamkhoev came to their house at the end of November 2003 with her husband, Gandarov, and Nalgiev. She understood from the conversation that they were close friends. In court, however, Chemuzieva said she had not given such testimony. In the opinion of the defense, Khamkhoev's visit to Geliskhanov is unestablished, and in court not a single witness confirmed the connection between Khamkhoev and the group of Nalgiev and Geliskhanov. In addition, the close familial connection with Nalgiev does not exclude contact between the boevik and the defendant; however, this does not mean they were involved in joint terrorist activity. In general, it is strange to accuse a man of participating in an illegal armed formation based on his acquaintance with a someone from the formation.

Khamkhoev himself asserts that, while Beslan Nalgiev is in fact his relative, he did not maintain relations with him. The last time Khamkhoev had seen Nalgiev was in November 2003.

The only unregistered firearm found with Khamkhoev was a grenade which he kept at home and voluntarily surrendered to authorities. The prosecution did not present any evidence that Khamkhoev had transported weapons for boeviks through checkpoints.

Magomed Khamkhoev's lawyer believes that the evidence against his client is unsound and is based on self-incrimination, testimony of the defendant made from dictation during the confession and interrogation, and the fantasies of investigators.

It is unclear why Magomed Khamkhoev in particular ended up in the dock. From the activities of the terrorist underground in Ingushetia, especially the events of 21-22 June, it is obvious that the terrorists had accomplices within the law-enforcement agencies — the boeviks were too well

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informed about the locations of their objectives and how to approach them. It is possible that for this reason investigators felt they had to imprison a police officer. The fact that Khamkhoev was a relative of the known boevik Nalgiev, and had inevitably crossed paths with him due to family connections, could also have been a factor in choosing Khamkhoev as a suspect.

3.4. The case of Magomed Tsakhigov and Alikhan Ibragimov

Magomed Tsakhigov and Alikhan Ibgragimov, residents of the Goity village in the Urus-Martanovsky district of Chechnya, are accused of being members of an illegal armed formation from May to November 2002 and of participating in combat operations, including an attack on the village Martan-Chu.

The young men are also accused of taking part in the boevik attack on Ingushetia on 21-22 June, 2004. As of this report's release date, their case was being reviewed by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ingushetia.

Takhigov and Ibragimov were indicted under Articles 205.3 (terrorism), 208.2 (participation in illegal armed formations), 209.2 (banditism), and 222.2 and 222.3 (unlawful possession of firearms) of the criminal code of the RF.

Both defendants were detained during a "cleanup operation" at the Altievo camp on 23 June 2004, where they were living as IDPs. In addition to them, around 50 men were also detained that day (see above).

According to the prosecution, all night from 21 to 22 June Tsakhigov and Ibragimov were in position by a gas station near the bridge across the Alkhan-Churskii canal, not far from the Altievo milk farm. With them was, supposedly, another man by the name of Turpal. The three of them fired into the air and at targets — cars approaching the bridge on the road from the side of the weapons warehouse. Ibragimov fired one and a half magazines of 7.62-mm rounds from a Kalashnikov. Tsakhigov fired even more rounds.

During the preliminary investigation, both of the accused gave self-incriminating testimony.

The following is excerpted from Tsakhigov's statement, which came was delivered to Memorial's Nazran office from the temporary detention center of the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia on 10 June 2005.

"On that day [23 June, 2004, in the city Prim; — Memorial], Alikhan and I were at home. Suddenly we heard women screaming and ran out of the room. In the corridor we were immediately stopped. Armed men in uniforms and masks threw us to the ground, then took us away to the Interior Ministry and began beating us, without even saying why they were beating us. Then they started asking us about the combat uniform they found in our barracks — who did it belong to? Also they asked what boeviks I knew and whether I was a boevik myself and whether I'd participated in the boevik attack on Ingushetia on the 21st. During this time we were tortured in various ways. The next day the torture was even worse. They weren't asking me anything anymore, just trying to make me confess to being part of the attack on Ingushetia in a band of boeviks. I tried to tell them I was innocent and asked them to give me a lie-detector test. After the lie-detector they beat me less and demanded that I sign a paper admitting that I was at least part of an illegal armed formation. I agreed so they wouldn't torture me anymore, and I said I was in the band of Doka Umarov from May to September 2002 since I knew that I could

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later prove I wasn't in Ingushetia at that time, in the stanitsa Troitskaya. I lived in an apartment there, the owners of the house would testify. The district police officer made a note of my living there in his journal.

"After the torture in the sixth [division] /he means UBOP- “Memorial”/of the Ingush Interior Ministry, where I signed the confession, I had seven broken ribs, a broken upper jaw, a broken right foot, and badly injured hands. When they took me after all of that to the temporary detention center of the Interior Ministry of North Osetia — and then to preliminary detainment at the local branch of the FSB of North Osetia — doctors examined me and made notes in their journals that I had the above injuries.

"I was in preliminary detainment at the FSB from 27 June to 22 July, 2004, and every day they took me to the sixth division of the Interior Ministry of North Osetia, to beat me. But not as bad as in the beginning.

"My friend A.A. Ibragimov couldn't bear the torture and signed a paper which supposedly contained his confession to participating in the attack on Ingushetia on 21-22 June, 2004. In particular it said that we stood with machine guns on a bridge across the Alkhan-Churtskii canal, which is next to the temporary detention center where we lived, and that we shot into the air and tried to stop the cars going by.

"In fact, Ibragimov and I were at home on the farm. From about 22:00 we were sitting with neighbors on a bench in the farm yard. The neighbors confirmed this in court. They also said that there was nobody standing on the bridge where Ibragimov and I had supposedly stood and fired, and that there was nobody shooting. A resident whose house is 10 meters from that bridge stated in court that on that bridge and in the surrounding area there was nobody shooting, and in general there was nobody at all. This can also be confirmed by his folks at home, who stood outside with him until morning, listening to what was happening in the city.

"We're being tried by a court of jurors, and in the presence of jurors it's forbidden to raise procedural questions. So we can't tell the jurors about the torture which we were subjected to, or the mutilations or beatings which we were given, and how we signed the papers.

"Without the whole truth of the matter, the jurors could come to a mistaken verdict.

"I ask you and your organization to defend my rights and protect me against the excesses of the authorities."

The following is excerpted from the statement of Ibragimov, which was delivered to Memorial's Nazran office from the temporary detention center of the Ingush Interior Ministry on 8 June, 2005.

"On the night of the boeviks' attack on Ingushetia, 21-22 June, Tsakhigov and I, having eaten after evening prayers, went out into the yard of our barracks and sat on a bench with other residents of our barracks. That was around 10 o'clock. While we were sitting on the bench there was gunfire from the direction of Nazran. The other residents didn't know what the shooting was about and they started to debate whether the shooting was because of a lunar eclipse, according to Vainakh custom. But when the shooting intensified and the explosions started, we knew it was some kind of boevik attack on Nazran. All night Magomed Tsakhigov and I stayed right there on the bench in our yard with the others, who can confirm this. At three in the morning Tsakhigov and I went into our room to sleep.

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"On 23 June, 2004, Tsakhigov and I, along with other guys — children of IDPs — were detained during a cleanup operation in our IDP camp. They took us to some kind of office, then I realized it was the Interior Ministry building. They put my shirt on my head so I couldn't see their faces, and they started to beat me brutally. They beat me with the butts of their rifles, strangled me, tied my hands, beat me on the head and body with truncheons, and gave me many other kinds of torture. They demanded that I confess to participating in the attack on Nazran on the night of 21-22 June, but when they realized I didn't have any connection with boeviks and the attack on Nazran, they began demanding that I sign documents saying I participated in the attack. But I refused to sign. Then they started to beat me again, but this time they demanded that I sign documents saying I was a boevik and that during the summer of 2002 I was in the forest in the Chechen Republic among boeviks. They told me that if I signed it they wouldn't touch me again. I couldn't bear the torture any longer, so I agreed, I signed the papers hoping that they wouldn't beat me anymore.

"But half an hour after that they handed me over to the UBOP in the city of Nalchik and told them I was a boevik. Then the men at UBOP started beating me. And when I told them the truth they laughed and said they didn't care about my innocence or my witnesses and that I would sign everything they told me to. And so they continued to torture me in various ways for several hours. Then one of them took a pistol and put my fingerprints on it by pressing my fingers against it, then put the pistol in a plastic bag and said to me: either you sign what I tell you to now, or we take you outside and shoot you and say that you shot yourself — your prints are on the gun. But before we do that we'll rape you and tape it on video.

"Physically and morally, I couldn't bear any more of this torture and humiliation. I said I would sign. Then they made me write a confession under dictation saying that I participated in the attack on Nazran on the night of 21-22 June, and they forced me to incriminate Magomed Tsakhigov, who they hadn't been able to force into confession.

"On the next day they took me away to the city Vladikavkaz. There, under pressure, I signed all the papers, and also some blank pages. Then they threw me in the SIZO at the Vladikavkaz branch of the FSB. They took me out several times and made me sign more papers. After a month, on 3 August, 2004, when I was in preliminary detainment at the Vladikavkaz branch of the FSB, I requested a new lawyer in the person of Magomed-Girei Nalgiev. I wanted to prove my innocence with his help.

"But on the second day, 4 August, two criminal investigation officers came to me and began to threaten me. They said — what are you up to? Sit quietly and if you move a muscle we'll take you to Stavropol and torture you again. They demanded that I repudiated my request for a change of lawyer. After a few days the first lawyer, Laura Khumaryants, came to me and I confided in her, I told her the whole truth about how they tortured me and that I had no connection whatsoever with what they were accusing me of. I told her I'd signed it under torture, and I gave her the names of my witnesses, who could confirm my innocence. After another week she came back with the investigator and they said I should tell them the truth so they could get to the bottom of things. I told the investigator where Tsakhigov and I were on the night of 21-22 June, the night of the boeviks' attack on Nazran, and I gave him the names of our witnesses, who could confirm our innocence.

"The investigator wrote it all down. But he didn't question our witnesses and didn't verify our innocence. He closed the matter and handed it over to the court. I also want to note that they never photographed my beatings — not in the temporary detention center in Vladikavkaz and not in solitary at the Vladikavkaz branch of the FSB. I think the investigator had some kind of

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arrangement with them not to leave any trace of my beatings. It's because of this torture that my jaw bone is injured.

"I ask you to help me defend my rights, as I am not guilty of anything — not only regarding the night of 21-22 June, 2004, but in general. In my whole life I've never been part of any combat actions, and the only trial I am receiving is one of the legal arbitrariness of the authorities."

In light of these statements, it is significant that the lawyer L. Khumaryants made no petition for a forensic medical examination and did not address a complaint to the public prosecutor's office regarding the torture of her client.

The statements of the accused naturally do not prove that his confession was obtained under torture. But they do some serious doubts regarding the admissibility of the evidence presented to the court and require further detailed investigation.

There are other facts which multiply these doubts. For example, according to witness testimony (a group of about six people who were situated in the immediate vicinity of the bridge by the milk farm Altievo), there were no boeviks at all standing around the gas station, and the gunfire did not come from that direction. Other witnesses and residents of milk farm Altievo confirmed that the young men were located that night on the premises of the milk farm.

In addition, 11 shell casings were found in the vicinity of the gas station (one 7.62-mm and ten 5.45-mm caliber). According to the prosecution, however, Tsakhigov and Ibragimov were carrying 7.62-mm-caliber rifles and each of them shot one and a half magazines. Therefore there should have been at least 90 shell casings and their caliber should have matched the rifle: 7.62 mm.

The court investigation in the matter of Tsakhigov and Ibragimov is drawing to an end. Memorial hopes for a fair decision by jury. According to Article 335 of the criminal code of the RF, however, questions on the admissibility of evidence are reviewed in the absence of jurors. Therefore, the prosecution has boldly built its case on the confessions of the accused, which were made during the preliminary investigation.

On August 3, 2005 the Jury of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ingushetia ruled that Ibragimov Alikhan and Tsakhigov Magomed were guilty of crimes stipulated by article 205.3 (terrorism), 208.2 (participation in illegal armed formations), 209.2 (banditism), 222.2, 222.3 (illegal storage of firearms) of the criminal code of the Russian Federation and sentenced them to to 13 years and 14 years in prison respectively.

3.5. The case of Bekkhan Gireev

On 4 May, 2005, in an interview with the radio station Echo of Moscow, Deputy of the Ingush Parliament Musa Ozdoev spoke about a resident of the city Nazran by the name of Gireev, with whom he was in the temporary detention center of the Interior Ministry in Nazran from 30 April to 1 May, 2005 (Ozdoev had been detained by Ingush police while attempting to carry out a protest in Nazran). Ozdoev asserts that Gireev and other people there were cruelly tortured by police officers and regularly beaten. According to Ozdoev, they were trying to obtain a confession from Gireev regarding his participation in a conspiracy to assassinate the president of Ingushetia.

The Ingush Interior Ministry refuted this information and threatened to take Deputy Ozdoev to court for libel.

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In June 2005 another deputy, Mukhtar Buzurtanov (chairman of the commission on legislation, legality, law and order, and security of the People's Assembly of Ingushetia) stated that he had spoken personally with Gireev in the presence of Gireev's lawyer in the preliminary detainment cell. "Gireev told me personally that no unlawful actions of any kind on the part of the temporary detention center officers had been undertaken with regard to himself," Buzurtanov said (Interfax).

Memorial workers were able to ascertain that Gireev was in fact not tortured in an IVS in Ingushetia. He was tortured in law-enforcement establishments in the city Vladikavkaz.

Memorial is in possession of the following information in the matter of Bekkhan Gireev.

On 26 April in Nazran, the local resident Bekkhan Gireev (12/1 Mashinostroitelei street) was detained by the “Imperial” gas station.

According to Bekkhan's brother, Adam Gireev, district police officer B.M.-C. Ugurchiev came to the Gireev residence in the morning. He had a subpoena from the prosecutor's office obliging Bekkhan to appear on 26 April at the prosecutor's office to give testimony. The district police officer had already come to the house one week before to take written testimony from the owner of the house, Magomed Gireev, regarding the whereabouts of his son Bekkhan Gireev on the night of 21 to 22 June, 2004. This time (one week later) the officer explained that Bekkhan was being summoned on that matter. Ugurchiev said he had lost Magomed Gireev's testimony and that, therefore, Bekkhan would have to give it anew, but in the prosecutor's office this time.

Bekkhan was not at home, as he was repairing his car at a mechanic's. His brother asked the police officer to wait and himself telephoned Bekkhan. When Bekkhan came home, the police officer had tired of waiting and gone. Bekkhan stayed a short time at home and returned to the mechanic's. His brother Adam went with him.

They stopped on Kartoev street around the “Imperial” gas station. Adam was supposed to drop off Bekkhan and drive further to the city Karabulak. At that moment several men ran up to the car, one in civilian clothes and the others in camouflage. They spun Bekkhan around, bent him over the hood of the car, placed a cellophane bag over his head, and put him in a car (a VAZ-2109 or VAZ-2107, color mother-of-pearl, with the numbers 056). The men advised Bekkhan's brother Adam to address himself to the local Interior Ministry for an explanation. During the seizure Gireev's pistol was taken.

At 16:00 on the same day, officers of the mobile division of the Russian Interior Ministry came to the Gireev home, headed by Col. V.I. Safonov, Investigator for Particularly Important Matters of the Main Division of the Russian Interior Ministry in the Southern Federal District. The men had a search warrant and searched the home. Nothing unlawful was found during the search. On the evening of the same day an unidentified person telephoned the Gireevs at home and informed them that Bekkhan was located in the city Vladikakaz at the address 4 Kosta Khetagurova street (the North Caucasus office of the General Prosecutor of the RF) and offered to hire a lawyer for them.

Several days later Gireev was transferred to Ingushetia and placed in preliminary detainment in the Republican Police Department of Ingushetia. At this time Ibragim Bekov, the lawyer hired by Bekkhan's relatives, joined the case; the lawyer on duty there, Laura Khumaryants, who represented the interests of the suspect while he was in Osetia, left the case.

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According to Bekov's testimony, Gireev had been badly beaten. At the insistence of his lawyer, the suspect was hospitalized in the Central Republic Hospital in Nazran, where in the course of three weeks he underwent two operations for his kneecaps. Forensic expertise medical office of North Osetia conducted a forensic medical examination to establish the state of Gireev's health. On the evidence of the violence applied to Gireev, a criminal case was opened by the republic's prosecutor's office of North Osetia (investigator Danshin).

Bekkhan Gireev is charged under Articles 209 (banditism) and 222 (unlawful possession of firearms).

The defendant does not deny his participation in an illegal armed formation.

3.6. The case of Khasan Egiev

On 1 April, 2005, at 14:30, in the town of Malgobek in the Republic of Ingushetia, Khasan Egiev, born 1978; resident of 65 Kievskaya street, was abducted by representatives of an unidentified law-enforcement agency.

According to Egiev's mother, Khasan was taken from a bus going to the village Voznesenovskaya in the Malgobekskii district. Four or six passenger cars approached the bus. Two men armed with machine guns got out of a car. They boarded the bus, seized Egiev, put him into a car, and left in an unknown direction. Before they left, Khasan had time to shout his name to the other people sitting in the bus.

On the night of 2 April, a stranger identifying himself as Khasan's lawyer telephoned Khasan's cousin. He said Khasan was being held in preliminary detainment in Vladikavkaz, North Osetia. Relatives hired the lawyer Kh.Yandieva. On 5 April she was able to speak on the phone with investigator of the prosecutor's office Krivorotov and agree on a meeting. On 6 April Yandieva met with Krivorotov and asked to be acquainted with the record of her client's detention. Krivorotov refused to provide this record. His words were literally as follows: "I have no doubt that Egiev is a bandit."

Kh. Egiev is charged under Articles 222 (unlawful possession of firearms), 208 (participation in an unlawful armed formation), 205 (terrorism), and 278 and 30 (attempting to take power by force) of the criminal code of the RF.

On the same day, Yandieva met with Khasan Egiev. In her conversation with him she learned that during Egiev's detention a hand grenade had been planted in his pocket. Khasan was subjected to violence and torture during his interrogations (hanging upside down, beaten with bottles on the head and body, jamming needles under his fingernails. As a result, Egiev was forced to sign a confession stating that he was already in possession of the hand grenade at the time of his detention but that he had supposedly found it only a short time before. According to his lawyer's description, Egiev's physical condition was very bad: there were bruises on his face and body and he had trouble moving around as his feet had been beaten.

Egiev's lawyer addressed a complaint regarding the actions of investigative services to Deputy General Prosecutor of the RF N.I. Shepel, head of the main division of the general prosecutor's office for the North Caucasus N.Ts. Khazikov, and public prosecutor of the Republic of North Osetia-Alania A.A. Bigulov. Egiev's lawyer requested that investigator Krivorotov be taken off the case as "a party personally interested in the outcome of the case" and that an official

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investigation be made into the application of physical violence to Egiev. She also requested that a forensic medical examination be carried out in light of Egiev's bodily injuries.

During the preliminary investigation, Khasan Egiev was hospitalized and spent some time in the Vladikavkaz city hospital. He was then returned to preliminary detainment in Vladikavkaz. Khasan was able to contact his relatives and inform them that he was being badly beaten, and that he had not held out under the beatings and had signed everything they put in front of him.

3.7. The case of Gelani Kholukhoev

On 20 June around 15:40 in Ingushetia, Gelani Kholukhoev, born 1985; domicile address: 31 Nasyr-Kortovskaya street, Nazran) was detained by agents of the mobile division of the Russian Interior Ministry while leaving the city Karabulak.

Kholukhoev was detained while traveling in his car. According to the data of the Ingush Interior Ministry, also detained with him were Ismail Ortskhanov and Aslambek Chiliev. All the detainees were taken on the same day to the Directorate for the Fight against Organized Crime of the Ingush Interior Ministry. Relatives were not officially informed about Kholukhoev's detainment and learned his location days later from Israil Tsoroev, the lawyer appointed by the investigation.

On 22 June, Kholukhoev's brother Ilez was able to meet with Gelani for several minutes. The suspect told his brother that he had been forced under torture to sign confessions. Ilez personally noted the burn marks on Gelani's hands. Gelani's lawyer addressed a petition to the prosecutor's office of the republic in which he required that Kholukhoev's testimony be examined for signs it was forcibly obtained on the premises of the UBOP for the Ingush Interior Ministry "with the goal of obtaining ... invented confessions regarding crimes he did not commit"33 and asked for a forensic medical examination.

According to the record of the questioning of the suspect, after his detainment he was taken to the premises of the Ingush Interior Ministry and beaten. "They beat my head against the wall, they kicked my legs. All this went on for two or three hours. At first the beatings were administered by agents of Russian nationality. It's possible I could identify them. Later, a police officer with the Ingush Interior Ministry — his name was Kharon and he was a guard — put wires on my fingers and periodically turned on the electric current. They demanded I confess to participating in a terrorist act, to participating in the events of 21-22 June, 2004, during the attack on the Republic of Ingushetia."34

On 23 June Ilez Kholukhoev came to the Nazran office of the human rights organization Memorial with a written statement asserting that his brother, Gelani Kholukhoev, was innocent and that the accusations made against him were far-fetched. On 21-22 June, 2004, he was visiting relatives in the settlement Kartsa, helping them prepare for the wedding of his [female] cousin on his mother's side. This is confirmed by the witnesses Basir Kotiev, Lida Getagazova, and a neighbor, Murzabekov.

33 Petition to Prosecutor General of Ingushetia Kalimatov from attorney Tsoroev, 23 June, 200534 Record of Kholukhoev's questioning, 23 June, 2005

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3.8. Five statements from those accused of participating in the events of 21-22 June, 2004

In the spring of 2005 the human rights organization Memorial receive statements from five defendants: Akhmed Tsuroev, Zaur Mutsolgov, Arbi Ibragimov, and Magomed-Khamid Tsechoev. These five are accused of participating in the attack on Ingushetia on 21-22 June and are being held in temporary preliminary detainment by the Ingush Interior Ministry in Nazran at the address 33 Itazova street. At the time this report is being written, their cases are being reviewed by the Supreme Court of Ingushetia.

In the declarations the circumstances of unlawful detention and torture are laid out in detail. The declaration of Tsuroev is in agreement with his wife's testimony. Similar statements by suspects and the testimony of their relatives deserve great attention. We do not assert that the suspects are not guilty of the crimes with which they are charged. Likewise we cannot assert that everything in the statements is true. It is necessary to carry out a special inquiry into the way in which the investigation was conducted with regard to these individuals. The absence of such an inquiry casts doubt upon the fairness of the judicial decision in the cases of the above-mentioned individuals in particular, and upon the judicial and law-enforcement systems of Ingushetia as a whole. Below, we introduce excerpts from their statements.

The statement of Akhmed Tsuroev, born 1979 (sent to Memorial's Nazran office from the temporary detention center of the Ingush Interior Ministry 30 May, 2005)

"... On 1 1 July, 2004, I was standing at my usual working place where I worked as a taxi driver, by the Markhaba market in Nazran. On that day my documents, like everyone else's documents, had been taken by police agents, who said that we all had to go to the police department to pick them up. I went to police department after signing a statement which said that I didn't know anything about the attack on Ingushetia on 21 June, 2004.

"The next day I was at my working place by Markhaba market and went from there in the direction of the traffic inspection point. I didn't get there, though — I stopped the car by the side of the road because I was out of gas. At that time, a truck was traveling beside my car. It went about another 20 meters, turned around, and drove up to me. Four men got out of the truck, they were officers and said I had to go to police department. I told them I'd been there yesterday, they started questioning me, they insisted that ... I go with them to police department.

"They took me to the head officer at GOVD, Zhabrail Kostoev, and he asked me to say where I was on the night of 21-22 June, 2004. I told him I was at home, that I have witnesses. Then he ordered that I be worked over, I was taken into one of the offices, they handcuffed me behind my back and put a bag over my head, then started to strangle me and give me electric shocks. Strangling, beating, and then they tied my hands and feet together behind my back and lifted me up and down, beating my head against the floor. They also beat me with their rifle butts. This went on for several hours. After that some Russian guys came in, I don't know where they were from, and in that condition they took me somewhere and threw me into some kind of basement, and at that time they took my wife and kid, and started to torture me again. That went on for about seven hours, and they tried to make me sign some kind of papers, but no matter how they tortured me I didn't sign, and then they started to take my pants off and wanted to rape me, and threatened to rape my pregnant wife. I couldn't bear any more and told them that if they let my wife and child go, I would sign.

"On the next day the whole thing was repeated. I said I wouldn't sign, they couldn't make me sign no matter how they tortured and beat my head against the concrete. Then they injected me with something, I don't know what but after the injection I was really afraid and didn't know what was

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happening with me. They beat me and tortured me 12 days, until they took me to the FSB in Osetia. After that they sometimes came for me and took me somewhere, I don't know where, and started again with the beatings and torture. I complained to the head of the preliminary detainment cell of the local branch of the FSB, they noted my beatings and each time promised that it wouldn't happen again, but it did happen, and kept happening almost until the court.

"Under such torture they made me sign all those papers and do everything they wanted. I signed everything without a lawyer. Later they made me sign everything with a lawyer. I told him that they were forcing me to sign. He said he couldn't do anything. You see, they tortured me and I had to sign and verbally acknowledge everything. The reason is that I couldn't hold out under such unbearable torture, they injured my heart and kidneys, the ulcers in my stomach have made me an invalid, all my innards have been damaged, I have a constant headache that makes me want to beat my head against the wall, and I'm always nauseous and vomiting, and sometimes I cough up blood."

The testimony of Tsuroev's wife, Tanzila Nalgieva (recorded by a Memorial worker from her words on 20 June, 2005)

"On 21 July, 2004, at about 9 in the evening, I was home alone with my one-year-old daughter. We were sitting in the courtyard of our house on Ozdoeva street, in the settlement Ekazhevo. Some men jumped over the fence, they were Ingush, and shouted "On the ground!" Then they opened the gate to the courtyard and armed men rushed in, some with masks and some without. They shouted "Where is he? Where's the gun?" I was very afraid. I was seven months pregnant and my legs went numb from fear, I felt like I was paralyzed, I crouched on the ground and took my daughter's hand and at first I couldn't say a word.

"Then they started to ask where he was on the 21-22 June. Somehow I answered. I informed them immediately of my condition, as I was afraid they would hit me. Several of them were very aggressive. Then they went into the house, many of them, 20 men or more. They started to search the whole house, without witnesses. They didn't show me any documents and didn't identify themselves. One was very rude to me. He said, "If it weren't for your condition, I'd show you." They dispersed throughout the house and turned the place upside down.

"But one of them was nice, an Ingush, he followed me around and said quietly, "Keep an eye on them, they could plant something on you." I said to him, "How can keep track of them all, there are so many of them!" I was mesmerized with fear.

"Among my husband's things was an old camouflage uniform, he used it as work clothes when he was fixing the car. I always kept the uniform in a bag because it was so dirty, to keep clean around the house. They found that uniform and confiscated it. He also had a linen uniform, he once worked as a guard at the market and they gave him the uniform there. This uniform was also confiscated.

"Then they called me into the corridor, until then I'd been in the far room, in our bedroom. After a while one of them called me back and said: "Look." But I couldn't see anything, the three of them were squatting in a circle, and I couldn't see what they were looking at. One of them said to me, "Look, do you see?" I looked and there was a grenade and some ammunition strewn about. I shouted: "You planted that on me! It was you!" He said to me, "What am I, a magician?" They were very clever about it, I didn't know how they did it.

"Then they said that I had to go with them to the police department of Ingushetia. I said I was pregnant and with a young daughter whom I had no place to leave, that it was already late and I

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couldn't go. They were doubtful. Then one of them made a phone call, it seemed he was calling his boss. After the conversation he said "No, you still have to go." And they took me to the police department.

"At the police department building, they took me up to the second floor and into an office. I had my child in my hands. Some kind of fat man interrogated me, very harsh, probably their leader. He had a television in his office, it seemed to me that on the television he watched the room where they interrogated my husband. I made out my husband's silhouette and the light roll-neck sweater he was wearing. When I entered, the man muted the television so that I couldn't hear what was being said, and I tried all the time to see if it really was my husband.

"He was rude with me. He asked why I wore a scarf. I told him that according to law it was not forbidden to wear it. He asked when my husband and I got married, asked about his family, the years of birth of all his relatives. I was in bad shape, my blood pressure rises when I'm pregnant and I had my girl in my hands, there was nowhere to lay here down, and she was making trouble. My hands and legs were trembling. After the interrogation I went into the corridor to rock my girl to sleep. I thought then that my husband was right there, on the second floor in the room on the right, two doors away from where I was, where they interrogated me. Because they all went in and out of that room, and closed the door so that I couldn't see what was in there. They wouldn't let me come near, they were afraid I'd go in. After two hours they took me home.

"For three months after that I couldn't calm down, I couldn't eat or speak, I cried all the time and didn't see anyone. I was afraid that my child would be born sick. But the boy, thank God, was born on time and healthy, but very anxious, he gives me trouble all the time.

"My husband doesn't have parents, and I didn't have any money to hire him a lawyer. I don't even know what he's actually accused of. We had a car, my husband was carrying some cash. We sold ice cream. All our money went back into the business. But they took our car on the very first day, and confiscated the money. I couldn't help him at all. And when they let me see him, he said I shouldn't spend money on a lawyer, that I should give the children what resources we had. It doesn't matter, he said, we don't have the money it would take to get me out of here anyway."

Akhmet Tsuroev was charged under Articles 105.2 (murder); 30.3 and subparagraphs "a", "f", "g", and "h"; 105.2 (attempted murder); 127.3 (unlawful imprisonment), subparagraphs "a" and "c"; 162.4 (banditism); 166.4 (illegally occupying an automobile or other form of transport without the intent to steal); 205.3 (terrorism); 208.2 (participation in an illegal armed formation); 209.2 (banditism); 222.3 (unlawful possession of a firearm); 226.4 subparagraphs "a" and "b" (theft of a firearm); and 317 (infringement on the life of a law-enforcement officer).

On August 3 2005 the Jury of the Supreme Court of Republic Ingushetia sentenced Tsuroev to 25 years in prison.

The statement of Zaur Mutsolgov (sent to Memorial's Nazran office from the temporary detention center of the Ingush Interior Ministry 10 June, 2005)

"On the morning of 6 July, 2004, around 8 o'clock, I came home from the village Barsuki, where I spent the night with relatives. After about 10 minutes armed men burst into our house. They didn't present any documents or papers. They spun me around and put a polyethylene bag over my head, and took me away in an unknown direction.

"After about 15 minutes we came to some kind of building, where they took me to the second floor to an office which had some big safes. Here they handcuffed my hands under my knees and

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shoved a crowbar under my armpits and strung me up like that between the safes. Then they started beating me with truncheons, torturing me with electric shocks, and strangling me, demanding that I admit to participating in the attack on the Ingush Interior Ministry on the night between 21 to 22 June, 2004. They demanded that I sign documents which they put in front of me. I couldn't hold out under the torture and humiliation, I had to sign what they gave me. Then they took me to the prosecutor's office in Vladikavkaz, where I was interrogated by investigators of the General Prosecutor for the North Caucasus Lapotnikov and Sobol, who personally directed my torture and humiliation after my every refusal.

"On 9 June, 2004, they put me into preliminary detainment in Vladikavkaz, where they photographed the results of my beatings, which can be found in the registration book of the Vladikavkaz preliminary detainment facility for 10 July, 2004.

"Several times, over three weeks in one of the offices of the Ingush Interior Ministry, I was subjected to the most refined methods of torture, with a particular cruelty. They put a polyethylene bag over my head, suffocating me and beat me with truncheons, targeting vital organs (liver, kidneys, ribs).

"From the end of July until the first of August I was transported to the Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, where I was taken several times to a separate cell and humiliated and beaten.

"From the beginning of August, I was taken back to solitary in Vladikavkaz, and until 20 August I was taken to the Ingush Interior Ministry nearly every day, where they tortured me by hanging me with my arms behind my back and beating me with truncheons on the legs and on vital organs, so that I would sign the papers they gave me. If I didn't, it would all go on...

"The effects of my torture remain on my body. I ask you to undertake all possible measures for the defense of my rights..."

Zaur Mutsolgov was charged under Articles 105.2 (murder) subparagraphs "a", "f", "g", and "h"; 30.3 subparagraphs "a", "f", "g", and "h"; 105.2 (attempted murder); 127.3 (unlawful imprisonment); 162.4 subparagraphs "a" and "c" (banditism); 166.4 (unlawful occupancy of an automobile or other form of transport without the intent to steal); 205.3 (terrorism); 208.2 (participation in an illegal armed formation); 209.2 (banditism); 222.3 (unlawful possession of a firearm), 226.4 subparagraphs "a" and "b" (theft of a firearm); and 317 (infringement of the life of a law-enforcement officer) of the criminal code of the Russian Federation.

On August 3 2005 the Jury of the Supreme Court of Republic Ingushetia sentenced Mutsolgov Zaur to 25 years in prison.

Above, we described how, on 6 July, 2004, Zaur Mutsolgov was detained at his home in Karabulak (Oskanova street 86) under the basest and most unlawful circumstances, and how he "disappeared" for three days after his detention. As in all the other cases, we do not assert that Mutsolgov is innocent. However, the facts documented by Memorial regarding the base violations of law by organs of the Interior Ministry and the prosecutor's office in relation to him and his family weigh heavily in favor of the veracity of at least part of the assertions made in the statements. This gives us the right to form serious doubts regarding the evidence of the suspect's guilt obtained by the investigation, and to demand an inquiry into the methods by which the investigation was undertaken.

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From the statement of Magomed-Khamid Tsechoev (sent to Memorial's Nazran office from the temporary detention center of the Ingush Interior Ministry on 30 May, 2005)

"In 2004, on 2 August, a car of the make VAZ-2107 without number plates, with darkened windows, entered the courtyard of the object we were guarding. Four men got out of the car and without any explanation, in a rough physical manner handcuffed me, pulled a black mask over my head, threw me into a car, and took me away in an unknown direction... I didn't know where they had taken me and where I was. They began demanding that I tell them where I was on the night of 21-22 June...

"I explained to them that on 21 June, 2004, at 9 in the morning I began a 24-hour duty cycle and was at the object I was guarding for the construction company Monolit in Magas (an industrial base). The head guard was Issa Malsagov, he lives in Ingushetia in Altievo, at 2 Shakhmuriev street. He contacted me by radio twice that night, to make sure we were on post. I talked to him personally on the radio around 23:00 that night. Besides me, my colleague Vakha Kozdoev can confirm all of the above, as well as the guards at the neighboring object Mustafa Vachalov, Beslan Ozdoev, Akhmed Dzormov, and the cook, who also lived in the courtyard, Zulai Ilyasova and her husband Khadzhi Dzubaraev.

"They didn't pay attention to my explanation and over several hours methodically subjected me to particular brutality. In particular, they tortured me with electric shocks, put a polyethylene bag over my head to suffocate me, beat me with truncheons on vital organs (liver, kidneys, and particularly the head), demanding that I confess to supposedly participating in the attack of 21-22 June, 2004, on law-enforcement agencies of Ingushetia. When they didn't get the confession out of me, after several more hours of torture as a trick, they said they would hold me for three days to check my explanations and let me sign. After that they took me to some kind of underground premises, threw me face-first to the ground, and took off my mask. I was half-conscious from my beatings and couldn't understand where I was.

"After some time, they handcuffed me and put on the mask, and took me away in an unknown direction. Only after we arrived did they take off the mask, and then I saw that I was on the premises of the Nazran district court. In one of the offices the judge read out the testimony which I had supposedly given and asked me if I agreed with the accusation about my participation in the attack on the Ingush Interior Ministry on 21-22 June. I was shocked and said that I had not given such testimony and several times I told them I was taking Article 51 of the Constitution of the RF. Only after my lawyer, Cherbizhev, told me my life was in danger and that if I wanted to leave alive and healthy I had to give my agreement — only then did I agree.

"After that they put the mask on me and took me to the Ingush Interior Ministry. In one of the offices they presented to me the testimony which I had supposedly written, and ordered me to get acquainted with it and repeat it all to the investigator.

"After I refused again, they put the mask on me again, handcuffed me below the knees, shoved a crowbar through my armpits, and strung me up. In that position began beating me with truncheons, torturing me with electric shocks, strangling me, and hitting my kneecaps. I lost consciousness several times but they brought me back and continued with renewed vigor... I couldn't hold out. I agreed to their demands..."

Magomed-Khamid Tsechoev was charged under Articles 205.3 (terrorism), 209.2 (banditism), 222.3 (unlawful possession of a firearm), and 317 (infringement on the life of a law-enforcement officer) of the criminal code of the Russian Federation.

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On August 3 2005 the Jury of the Supreme Court of Republic Ingushetia sentenced Magomed-Khamid Tsechoev to 19 years in prison.

From the statement of Arbi Ibragimov (sent to Memorial's Nazran office

from the temporary detention center of the Ingush Interior Ministry on 1 April, 2005)

"I, Arbi Shakhidovich Ibgragimov, was born 19 May, 1974, in the village Sernovodsk, in the Sunzhensk district of the then Chechen-Ingush Republic. In 2000 I married M.A. Islamova. At the present time I have three children, who are in my care.

"Until 2002 my family and I lived at our house in Sernovodsk at 30 Kutalova street. In the summer of 2002 I was detained at a checkpoint at the entrance to our village. I was held for 10 days in total. I was beaten and tortured, and they demanded that I give the whereabouts of my wife's brother, M.A. Islamov, who at that time had become a boevik, and detail the crimes in which I had participated with him.

"After they let me go, my family and I moved to the stanitsa Orzhdonikidzovskaya in Ingushetia. I lived there as a IDP in the tent city MRO until 2003. Then I rented an apartment, since I was very difficult in the tent city with my young children. Islamov would sometimes visit us, he gave me a key to the apartment which I rented at his request and told me to look after it. When Nashkho came, I was supposed to give him the things in the apartment.

"Nashkho came in March of 2004, and I went with him to the apartment I'd taken for X-M.A. Islamov at the address 28 Lugovaya street, in the stanitsa Ordzhonikidzovskaya. I gave him the things which were there. But Nashkho didn't take all the things; he left some of them. Among those things I saw a gun.

"On 9 July, 2004, I surrendered to agents of the FSB and showed them the apartment and everything in it. That was when the beating and torture started, which continue to this day.

"In particular, on that day, when I surrendered, they beat me for the first time. They beat me with rifle butts, they kicked me. They dislocated my arm, pulled out my tongue. When I lost consciousness they took me to the city Magas and threw me into the basement of the FSB building, where they poured water on me. When I came to, they strung me up in a doorway by my handcuffs and beat me with sticks. They hooked up electrical contacts to my ear and scrotum and turned on the current. They burned my chest with lighters and slashed my head.

"On the next day, they put me in a UAZ truck and drove until night. At night they brought me to some kind of dugout in the forest, apparently intended specially for torturing people. On the ceiling of the dugout were hooks and on one of these I was hung by my handcuffs, which were behind my back. Then they began beating me with a rubber tube. When I stopped feeling pain from the blows, they attached a live electrical lamp to my arms and let them hang. I received burns on my hands and a fracture in my right hand.

"The next day, I was taken to Khankala, where they threw me into some kind of trailer. There were several such trailers there and you could hear periodic moans and screams coming from them. There they continued to torture me until 28 July, 2004. During the torture they gave me some kind of injections, after which I experienced anxiety and fear and felt very unwell. They also gave me burns on the face and my left hand with a metal spoon heated on a fire. They tortured me with electric shocks.

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On 29 July, 2004, they took me to the FSB in Magas and told me I had to sign some papers. Since I had no more strength to endure any beatings, I signed those papers, but I don't know their contents. Then they explained to me the things which I would have to relate at the next interrogation in the presence of a lawyer, and in court. In particular, that I had been detained on 29 July, 2004, when I came to the FSB in Magas in order to confess to participating in the attack on Ingushetia on the night of 21-22 June, 2004...

"At night they took me to the temporary detention center of the Interior Ministry of North Osetia and told me that if I didn't sign the papers in the presence of a lawyer, they would take me out and shoot me while I tried to escape. I signed the papers...

"...After court, when I was in solitary in the city Pyatigorsk, they took me to the temporary detention center in Grozny, where for 8 days I was interrogated and beaten. Then they transferred me to UBOP and the torture continued. There they made me sign a statement that I was an emir in the Achkhoj-Martanovskii district and that I had under my authority a group of 5 men. Then they took me to solitary in Pyatigorsk, where I asked several times for a forensic medical examination, with hope of documenting the beatings and mutilations I received, but the examination was not conducted."

Arbi Ibragimov was charged under Articles 166.4 (unlawful occupation of an automobile or other mode of transport without the intent to steal), 205.3 (terrorism), 208.2 (participation in an illegal armed formation), 222.3 (unlawful possession of a firearm), 209.2 (banditism), and 317 (infringement on the life of a law-enforcement officer) of the criminal code of the RF.

On August 3, 2005 the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ingushetia sentenced Ibragimov to 23 years in prison.

Ibragimov's case is not the only case when a young man informed, of his own volition, law-enforcement agencies of weapons caches, unlawful activities of boeviks, or his own refusal to participate in criminal acts. But he was subsequently tried for terrorist activity.

Musa Dzangiev (born 1972) is also included in the same group of cases based around the attack on Ingushetia on 21-22 June. Dzangiev did in fact set out with boeviks on that night at the intersection Ekazhevo-Ali-Yurt-Magas. The suspect claims that he learned the plans for the night after he had been taken to the intersection. When he had arrived at the scene and the understood the goal of the operation — an ambush and a treacherous attack on representatives of Ingush law-enforcement agencies — he left of his own volition and took with him everyone who was on post with him.

According to one witness, deputy commander of OMON Sakalov, who passed the Ekazhevo-Ali-Yurt-Magas intersection three times that night, there were no boeviks there. The data at hand indicate that no one died at that location. Dzangiev voluntarily surrendered his weapon and cooperated totally with law-enforcement agencies during the investigation. According to Russian legislation, a voluntary refusal to engage in criminal activity carries no criminal penalty. Dzangiev, however, is nevertheless charged with participating in the attack on Ingushetia on 21-22 June under Articles 209 and 205 of the criminal code of the RF. Memorial has received information that Dzangiev was cruelly tortured in the basement of the FSB building in Magas, in preliminary detainment in Vladikavkaz, and in the Ingush branch of UBOP.

On August 3, 2005 the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ingushetia sentenced Musa Dzangiev to 14 years in prison.

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In the opinion of Memorial, harsh sentences of these young men will inevitably frighten off other young men from cooperating with authorities in exposing terrorist groups.

3.9. The unlawful detention and disappearance of the Kodzoev brothers

On 31 May, 2005, Memorial's Nazran office received an application from relatives of the Kodzoev brothers, who were unlawfully detained on 16 February and since that time have been missing.

According to the statement, on 16 February, 2005, around 6:30 in the morning in the village Kantyshevo in the Nazranovskii district of Ingushetia, agents of the Ingush branch of the FSB conducted a special operation, during which were detained the Kozdoev brothers: Magomed, born 1979, and Khavazh-Bagaudin, born 1984. Three armored personnel carriers, two Ural cars, Gazel and UAZ-452 minibuses, and other transport equipment were deployed in the operation. Since that time, the Kodzoev brothers have been missing.

It is known from statements made in mass media by official representatives of the Ingush branch of the FSB that on 16 February, agents of Ingush special services liquidated a representative of Shamil Basaev in the Kodzoev house in Ingushetia, the Al Qaeda emissary Abu-Dzeit, an Arab. He arrived from Kuwait and "ordered and paid for almost all the large-scale acts of terror committed recently in the region, including the seizure of hostages in Beslan" (Kommersant: 22 February, 2005).

"The operation was conducted by agents of the FSB on instructions from the General Prosecutor of Russia as part of the criminal investigation into the seizure of the school in Beslan. The terrorist was liquidated during arrest. Five machine guns, a carbine, a large quantity of explosive devices with radio detonators already prepared for use, and components for high-power mines with shaped charges were found in the house in which he was hiding" (Gazeta: 22 February, 2005).

Abu-Dzeit was found thanks to the vigilance of a local resident who, passing the house of his neighbor Musa Kodzoev, noticed the unusual construction of the building: "from the roof of the tiny shanty, which had somehow been knocked together from pieces of board, plywood, and rubberoid, two tall and big metal ventilation pipes were sticking out. The neighbor, suspecting something was wrong, told the local branch of the FSB about his observations" (Kommersant: 22 February, 2005). Agents of special services surveilled the Kodzoev house and established that there were frequent night gatherings of unknown suspicious people (Kommersant, 22 February, 2005).

According to Kommersant, in the early morning in Kantyshevo, special agents of the Ingush Interior Ministry and local branch of the FSB moved in. At that time everyone in the Kodzoev house was still asleep. The soldiers easily knocked out the windows and doors of the house and dragged out the scared-to-death owner of the home and incidentally liquidated two armed boeviks who attempted to resist. A preliminary search of the premises revealed nothing. The special agents wanted to go back, but at that time one of them for some reason kicked a nearby gas stove. The unit fell away and underneath was a hatchway. The agents descended through the hatch, turned on their flashlights and discovered the very premises for which the modern ventilation had been intended. Under Kodzoev's plywood was a rather spacious concrete bunker equipped with automatic heating systems and ventilation. The basement was lit with florescent lamps, and from the basement to the outside, to the masked agents, led lines providing the

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bunker with telephone and radio connections. There was also a refrigerator with a small supply of groceries, a writing table, and a bed. (Kommersant: 22 February, 2005).

Incidentally, relatives of Kodzoev deny the official version. According to the wife of Magomed Kodzoev, Zaira Kodzoeva, in the early morning armed men in masks burst into the courtyard of their home, which is situated at the intersection of Shkolnaya and Sadovaya streets. The men ran forward after the armed personnel carrier which had crashed the gates. Zaira Kodzoeva went outside to see what was happening. One of the soldiers asked her who was in the house. She answered that only her husband and two children were inside. The soldier then told the woman to call her husband outside. The husband came out and was seized.

The woman and kids were taken through the gates and put in a white Gazel minibus. Magomed Kodzoev was taken inside the house. All the "law-enforcement agents" in the house and outside spoke Russian without an accent. At 9:30 Magomed Kodzoev was taken out of the house in handcuffs and with a black bag over his head. His wife and kids sat in the Gazel until about 12:00. Then the soldier who was commanding the others allowed her to go to her relatives. All the time she was in the area of the house, she heard neither gunfire nor explosions. The district militia officer stood beyond the cordon and was not allowed into the area of the special operation.

After Zaira Kodzoeva left, her husband's brother, Khavazh-Bagaudin Kodzoev, came to the house. On the night before these events, Zaira and Magomed's son was born, and Khavazh-Bagaudin had come to congratulate the family with the birth. Instead of this, Khavazh-Bagaudin was seized and taken away in an unknown direction.

The "law-enforcement officers" were in the Kodzoev house until about 18:00. When Zaira Kodzoeva returned home, she saw that almost all the rooms had had their floors ripped up. There was no indication of explosions or gunfire in the house.

Memorial monitors visited the scene and questioned neighbors of the Kodzoevs. It turned out that they also had not heard either gunfire or explosions. Noudash Kodzoeva, who lives at 1 Sadovaya, said that between 12 and 13:00 a man in camouflage came into their house — an Ingush — and told them to stay away from the window, as there would soon be an explosion. There was, however, no explosion to follow, and after several minutes small clap was heard.

In any case, independently of the veracity of Noudash Kodzoeva's facts, one thing is beyond doubt: in the course of the special operation two men were detained who then disappeared.

The mother of the Kodzoev brothers made a written petition to the Ingush Interior Ministry and to the public prosecutor's office of the Nazran district. The Interior Ministry's answer was that "no operational-search measures were undertaken by agents of the Ingush Interior Ministry in relation to X-B.A. Kodzoev, M.A. Kodzoev, or the home belonging to them." Furthermore, "on 16 February, 2005, in an unnumbered household at the intersection of Sadovaya and Shkolnaya streets in the village Kantyshevo, Nazran district, an operation was carried out by agents of the Ingush branch of the FSB, tasked by the North Caucasus division of the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, to detain the Arab Abu-Dzeit, during which the latter made use of a homemade explosive device and died on the spot. Inspection of the scene was conducted by the investigative brigade of the North Caucasus division of the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation under the leadership of inspector K.E. Krivorotov." In connection with this, relatives of the Kodzoevs were advised to turn to the North Caucasus division of the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, which is located in the city Yessentuki in the Stavropol region (21

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Mendeleeva street). The answer from the Nazran prosecutor's office reached the Kodzoevs only after 20 May.

In the course of the four months after the disappearance of the two men, law-enforcement agencies have not opened a criminal case in the matter.

Memorial has sent petitions on this matter to the General Prosecutor.

3.10. The unlawful detention and "disappearance" of Magomed Merzhoev

On 16 May, 2005, around 6:20 in the morning, in Karabulak, Ingushetia, armed men — supposedly agents of a law-enforcement agency — abducted Magomed Merzhoev, born 1968, a resident of Ingushetia and registered at the following address: village Plievo, 12 Ordzhonikidzevskaya street, but in fact living in Karabulak on Burploschadka.

Magomed Merzhoev fought with boeviks in the first Chechen war and was wounded: he is missing his right hand. After the amnesty was declared, he returned to peaceful life. He has two children (4 years old and 1 and a half years old).

Merzhoev was abducted from the premises of a concrete factory where he worked as a guard. The only witness to this event is a guard at the neighboring enterprise, who informed Magomed's relatives that he had seen three light machines (two VAZ-2107, dark red and green, and a UAZ-469 with darkened windows) leave the area of the factory along with an armored personnel carrier.

Merzhoev's relatives sent written statements to the public prosecutor's offices of the republic and Karabulak, to the police station in Karabulak, and to the Ingush branch of the FSB. None of these agencies admitted to the complicity of their agents in Merzhoev's detention. In the Karabulak public prosecutor's office, a criminal case was opened into Merzhoev's abduction. As of 27 May Merzhoev's whereabouts are officially unknown.

However, relatives undertook independent searches and discovered that an unidentified soldier had come to the cement factory several days before Magomed's abduction. The soldier was interested in the prices of building materials. He came in a dark red automobile (a VAZ-2107; a similar vehicle was seen on the premises of the cement factory in the early morning on the day of Merzhoev's abduction). The soldier spoke Russian with a strong accent, it seems Dagestani. He was dressed in khaki camouflage. The owner of the factory, Magomed Idigov, found this man to be suspicious and observed him without notice when he left. According to Idigov, the vehicle entered the territory of the Ingush branch of OMON in Karabulak. Relatives also established through their own channels that federal and Chechen law-enforcement agents had been involved in Magomed's abduction. They learned from the same source that Magomed Merzhoev was taken to a military base in the settlement Khankala and then transferred to Vladikavkaz.

4. Recommendations

Using the material included in this report as a basis, the Human rights center “Memorial” recommends the following.

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4.1. To authorities, ministries, and other government agencies of the Russian Federation:

4.1.1. The General Prosecutor of the RF must conduct a comprehensive examination of the actions of law-enforcement agencies and the work of agencies of the public prosecutor's office on the territory of Ingushetia and North Osetia-Alania; an examination of the activities of the North Caucasus division of the General Prosecutor of the RF in these republics; an examination of all cases of illegal armed formations which were investigated in these republics in cases where it is asserted that suspects were tortured and pressured, and in these cases to reexamine these cases with consideration of the new circumstances; and to bring to responsibility those who have treated detainees and arrestees in an unlawful manner.

4.1.2. The practice of the temporary "disappearance" of detainees and arrestees must be ceased at once. In order to reduce the chances of torture and other unlawful methods of coercion being applied to detainees and arrestees, and also in order to provide for the lawful interests of their relatives, the General Prosecutor of the RF must inform relatives of detainees and arrestees as quickly as possible of the locations where the latter are being detained.

4.1.3. The leadership of the FSB, Interior Ministry, and Ministry of Defense must formulate normative documents regulating special operations35 and covering, in particular,

readable identification numbers on military vehicles, government registration numbers on transport vehicles,

chest-mounted tags with readable identification numbers on persons conducting special operations,

when conducting a check and inspection of a household, the introduction of the senior member of the group, who should provide his name and rank to the owner of the household and present him with the relevant documents;

4.1.4. The leadership of the FSB, Interior Ministry, and Ministry of Defense must formulate normative documents for operationally deployed groups which regulate special operations for the detention of participants in illegal armed formations and those suspected of terrorist activity, which should cover:

the necessity of protecting the civilian population located on the territory where the special operation is conducted,

the necessity of applying the force and means commensurate to the threat,

the necessity of compensating the damage done by the operation.

The situation in Ingushetia merits the particular attention of:

4.1.5. — state human rights agencies: the apparatus of Plenipotentiary for Human Rights of the RF and the President of the RF's Council on the development of civil society and human rights;

4.1.6. — the President's representative in the southern federal region.

35 In relation to special operations conducted in the Chechen Republic, such a requirement was established by the order of the Commander of the Combined Forces V. Moltenskii no. 80, 2002.

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4.1.7. The highest executive authority of Ingushetia must approve a list of jury candidates for Ingushetia in order to guarantee the right of defendants to a fair trial.

Inasmuch as the problems discussed in this report (following the law in detention facilities during interrogation and investigation) concern not only Ingushetia but other regions of the Russian Federation as well, Memorial recommends:

4.1.8. — that the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation cooperate with nongovernmental human rights organizations working to establish civilian control in detention facilities;

4.1.9. — that representatives of international humanitarian organizations, including the Red Cross, be given access to detention facilities in order to visit detainees under conditions acceptable to the organizations;

4.1.10. — that, in correspondence to the recommendation of the Red Cross, members of families of the disappeared be helped in their struggle for their right to know the fate of their relatives.

4.2. The situation in Ingushetia merits the particular attention of international intitutions of which the Russian Federation is a member, in particular the Council of Europe:

4.2.1. –in the analysis by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of the situation in the armed conflict in the North Caucasus;

4.2.2. –in the monitoring by Council of Europe of Russia’s compliance with its obligations as a member of the organization;

4.2.3. –in the analysis of the problem of enforced disappearances by the Commission for Human Rights and Legal Issues;

4.2.4. –during inspections on the territory of the Russian Federation by the Commission for the Prevention of Torture of the Council of Europe. A special attention should be paid to detention facilities in Ingushetia and North Osetia such as the preliminary detainment facility in Vladikavkaz, the UBOP in Republic North Osetia-Alania and Ingushetia, the Ingush Interior Ministry, the Ingushetia municipal police department, and the Ingush branch of the FSB in the city Magas.

4.2.5. Memorial recommends that the European Court on Human Rights in Strasburg assign a high priority, according to Rule 41 of the Court's charter, to a review of the cases of people who have disappeared after their detention by law-enforcement agents of the Russian Federation and Ingushetia.

To the United Nations:

4.2.6. The situation in Ingushetia must be accounted for by special organs of the UN in reviewing the Russian Federation's reports of its compliance with a series of international agreements on human rights, in particular the Convention Forbidding Torture and the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights.

4.2.7. The staff of the UN special rapporteur for enforced disappearances should apply available urgent procedures in cases of people who have disappeared after being detained by members of Russian and Ingush law-enforcement agencies.

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4.2.8. It is all the more obvious that official observers must be deployed to the zone of armed conflict in the North Caucasus to review cases of torture, extrajudicial executions, and the disappearance of people. In this context, they should give particular attention to events in Ingushetia.

List of Abbreviations

APC – Armed Personnel CarrierGUVD – Municipal Department of Internal AffairsUPOB – Department for Combat of Organized CrimeFSB – Federal Security ServiceMVD –Ministry of Internal AffairsOMON –Unit of Militia of Special AssignmentRSO-A – Republic of North Osetia-Alania

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