Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus – It is not a rarity in Chechnya to arrest
Chechens and then blow them up with explosives so as to conceal all traces. However,
one man, Aslan Dzhabrailov, from the Pervomayskaya village near Grozny was fortunate
to escape just such a fate.
On February 16, federals took Aslan and his elder brother, Valid, from their home
and held them in the cellar of one of the military compounds. Aslan said
that he was systematically beaten so that he would confess to his involvement
with the Chechen fighters.
Four days later, they dragged Aslan out of the building with a bag over his head
and put him in a truck on top of what he was convinced was a corpse. After awhile
the truck stopped, he was taken out and again laid atop a dead body. Minutes later
he heard a shot fired, but luckily the bullet whizzed by him and he was not hit.
However, Aslan lay still, pretending to be dead; he then felt a hard object being
placed between him and the body under him and heard footsteps hurrying away.
He managed to untie himself and saw to his horror that he had been lying on top
of his dead brother; and there was an explosive wedged between them that was about
to blow up. By working feverishly he extinguished the fuse with seconds to spare,
crawled toward the road and got help from some people who reported the incident
to the police.
The Dzhabrailov family is now trying to find Valid’s killers. They requested
the prosecution to find and punish the offenders. Charges have been brought
as well.