| 26.01.2005, 03.08 Retrial of 2 servicemen accused of murdering Chechen civilians ROSTOV-ON-DON, January 26 (Itar-Tass) - The North Caucasus district military court begins a preliminary hearing on Wednesday of the case of two Russian servicemen accused of murdering Chechen civilians. Two Interior troops officers - Senior Lieutenant Yevgeny Khudyakov and Junior Lieutenant Sergei Arakcheyev - led a reconnaissance group in the Oktyabrsky district of the Chechen capital Grozny on January 15, 2003, which fired on a Kamaz truck, killing all the three people in it. In June 2004, the jury panel of the North Caucasian district military court acquitted the defendants but the Military Prosecutor's Office in the North Caucasus appealed the court decision. In November 2004, the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court allowed the appeal of the Military Prosecutor's Office. It annulled the "not guilty" verdict and sent the case for retrial. Trial by jury remains an option for the defendants. The injured party will insist on retrial without jury, its representative told Itar-Tass. The preliminary court hearing, initially scheduled for January 12, was postponed as one of the lawyers failed to appear in court. On February 15, the North Caucasus court will continue the hearing of the so-called Ulman case (the name of one of the defendants), which is identical in many ways to the first one. Four offices of the Russian army's special task force unit are accused of killing six civilians in Chechnya. Earlier, they were acquitted by a jury. However, the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court ordered retrial. According to case materials, Captain Eduard Ulman, Major Alexei Perelevsky, Lieutenant Alexander Kalagansky and Warrant Officer Vladimir Voyevodin in January 2002 the officers opened fire at a car near the Dai locality in the Shatoi district of Chechnya. One of the six people inside the car was killed on the spot and three wounded. Having come up to the car, the military saw civilians inside and rendered first aid to the wounded. Nevertheless, fearing responsibility for the committed act, and trying to cover their tracks the officers shot the passengers, put the bodies in the car and blasted it. The accused said they had followed the orders of the superiors, the claim not proven at the previous court sessions. News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International AI Index: EUR 46/004/2005 26 January 2005 Russian Federation: Concerns over reports of "disappearances" of relatives of Aslan Maskhadov Amnesty International is seriously concerned about credible reports that eight relatives of Aslan Maskhadov were arbitrarily detained by pro-Russian Chechen forces in December 2004 and have not been seen since. According to the Memorial Human Rights Centre and other organizations in the region, the so-called Kadyrovtsy, armed forces under the command of First Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, are responsible for the "disappearances". According to reports, the eight relatives are being held at an illegal detention facility in Tsenteroi, Kurchaloevskii district in the east of Chechnya, which is reportedly under the control of Ramzan Kadyrov. However, officials in Chechnya have denied that they have detained the eight individuals. According to witnesses interviewed by Memorial, five relatives were reportedly detained at different addresses and taken away during the evening of 3 December 2004. They are: Buchu Alievna Abdulkadirova (aged 67), sister of Aslan Maskhadov; Lecha Alievich Maskhadov (68), brother of Aslan Maskhadov; Lema Alievich Maskhadov (55), brother of Aslan Maskhadov; Ikhvan Vakhaevich Magomedov (35), nephew of Aslan Maskhadov; and Adam Abdul-Karimovich Rashiev (54), a distant male relative of Aslan Maskhadov. Another three individuals were reportedly detained on 28 December. They are: Khadizhat Vakhaevna Satueva (40), niece of Alsan Maskhadov, her husband Usman Ramzanovich Satuev (47) and Movladi Abdulkadyrov (35), the husband of Aslan Makhadov’s wife's sister. Witnesses to the detentions have claimed that the so-called Kadyrovtsy were responsible for the detentions and that during two of the detentions, that of Buchu Alievna Abdulkadirova and of Ikhvan Vakhaevich Magomedov, the armed men reportedly stated that they were acting on the personal orders of Ramzan Kadyrov. The detentions reportedly took place in the evening of 3 and 28 December, with armed men travelling in large convoys of cars (up to 12 vehicles in some cases). Arbitrary detention and "disappearances" are prohibited under Russian and international law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) includes a range of rights which the Russian Federation, as a party to the Covenant, is obliged to uphold. These include the right to life, article 6(1); the right to liberty and security of the person, article 9; the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, article 7; and the right to a fair and public trial, article 14. Article 2 obliges state parties to investigate all reports of violations of human rights and provide redress to victims or their relatives. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms also contains these rights: right to life, article 2; the right to liberty and security of the person, article 5; the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, article 3; and the right to a fair and public trial, article 6, and the right to redress for human rights violations, article 13. The UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance was adopted by the UN General Assembly without a vote in December 1992 "as a body of principles for all States" (Preamble). Russia has a responsibility to adhere to its provisions. It says in its preamble that the General Assembly considers that: "enforced "disappearance" undermines the deepest values of any society committed to respect for the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, ...the systematic practice of such acts is of the nature of a crime against humanity". Amnesty International urges the authorities to investigate the whereabouts of the eight relatives reportedly detained on 3 and 28 December and to carry out immediately a full, thorough and independent inquiry into the allegations that the men who abducted them were members of the security forces under the command of First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov. If the relatives are found to be in the custody of the security forces they should be released immediately unless they are to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence in a court of law, in line with Russia’s obligations under international human rights law. Anyone responsible for the “disappearances” should be brought to justice in line with international standards. Background Fighting in Chechnya began in 1994, when Russian federal forces moved to crush an independence movement that had arisen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This first conflict ended in 1996 and Aslan Maskhadov, who had acted as chief of staff of the Chechen rebel forces during the conflict, was elected President of Chechnya in 1997. However, in late 1999 Russian federal forces attacked the region again after a series of bomb explosions in Moscow and two other Russian cities, which the Russian authorities blamed on Islamic separatist groups in Chechnya. A pro-Moscow administration was established in Chechnya whose legitimacy is contested by Chechen opposition forces, some of whom remain loyal to Aslan Maskhadov. In spite of repeated claims from Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen officials that the situation is "normalizing", there seems to be no end in sight either to the conflict itself or to the accompanying widespread, persistent and largely unpunished human rights abuses. These include torture, including rape, killings and "disappearances" by Russian troops against civilians in Chechnya. Rebel fighters have also been responsible for egregious human rights abuses. View all documents on the Russian Federation at http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maac67KabdE5SbeuxZvb/ ***************************************************************** You may repost this message onto other sources provided the main text is not altered in any way and both the header crediting Amnesty International and this footer remain intact. Only the list subscription message may be removed. ***************************************************************** Past and current Amnesty news services can be found at <http://www.amnesty.org/news/>. Visit <http://www.amnesty.org> for information about Amnesty International and for other AI publications. Contact amnestyis@amnesty.org if you need to get in touch with the International Secretariat of Amnesty International. Privacy policy <http://web.amnesty.org/pages/aboutai-privacy-eng> 2005-01-26 15:05 Militants kill two women in Grozny GROZNY, January 26 (RIA Novosti) - Militants in Grozny killed two local women, who refused to give them the money of Wahhabite "Jamaat", a spokesman for the press center of the Regional Operational Headquarters for Controlling the Anti-Terrorist Operation in the North Caucasus told RIA Novosti. "The murder was committed by members of the group of militants, headed by Isa Khatuyev from the Rizvan Chitigov criminal gang. The militants tried to find and take the money belonging to the Wahhabite "Jamaat" which was earlier headed by "emir" Mussa Akhmatukayev," the spokesman said. According to the spokesman, four armed militants in masks penetrated the house on Uchenicheskaya Street in the Chechen capital and killed 41-year-old Raisat Israilova and 21- year-old Birlant Israilova. The spokesman explained that, according to local inhabitants, some time ago suspicious people visited that house several times and each time noisy scandals occurred. The neighbors heard in one of the conversations with Raisat Israilova she said that the visitors were members of the Isa Khatuyev criminal gang. "In investigating the crime, law enforcement officers established that both women were relatives of 24-year-old Musa Akhmatukayev, a member of the criminal gang, who was killed in Grozny," the headquarters spokesman added. Investigators are considering the possibility that the militant received a big sum of money from the leaders of the criminal gang to use it to commit terrorist acts. However, he did not have time to spend it because federal forces killed him. "At that time, after a special operation, the money was not found in the house, though the law enforcement officers possessed the information about the scheme and the channels through which the Akhmatukayev criminal gang was financed. Presumably, his relatives could know the place where the money was hidden but preferred to keep silent and, as a result, were killed by Chitigov bandits," concluded the headquarters spokesman. Thursday Jan. 27, 2005 FSB Investigates Paper for Rebel Statements By Carl Schreck Staff Writer The Federal Security Service's Nizhny Novgorod branch is investigating a local newspaper after it published statements by Chechen rebel President Aslan Maskhadov and his envoy Akhmed Zakayev and has questioned its staff. The regional prosecutor's office opened a criminal case on Jan. 11 over Pravo-Zashchita's publications in March and April, local FSB spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said Wednesday. He said prosecutors believe that the publications -- which included an appeal by Maskhadov to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and a statement by Zakayev saying he was "extending his hand in peace to the Russian people through their president" -- amounted to a call for extremist action. Sintsov said the investigation has been handed to the regional FSB, and no one has been charged, although several of Pravo-Zashchita's staff have been questioned. The newspaper's editor, Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, said that FSB investigators questioned him Thursday about the newspaper's source of financing, how Maskhadov's and Zakayev's statements were obtained, and who approved their publication. "They repeatedly told me that charges will be pressed only against the person who authorized publication, and I told them I was the only person with that authority," Dmitriyevsky said by telephone. He said Pravo-Zashchita is financed by the U.S. government-funded National Endowment for Democracy. The newspaper is run by the Russian- Chechen Friendship Society, a nongovernmental organization. Dmitriyevsky said he believes the FSB is cracking down on the newspaper's coverage of the conflict in Chechnya, where it has several reporters under contract. "What I worry about most are our reporters in Chechnya," he said. "The FSB has an official reason now to question them, and ... being questioned in Chechnya is a lot different than being questioned in Nizhny Novgorod. Even if they aren't physically beaten, they could be pressured into ending their journalistic activities." Pravo-Zashchita is a monthly publication with a circulation of 5,000 and is distributed for free in the region. Dmitriyevsky said the newspaper's primary purpose is to promote peace between Russians and Chechens. Meanwhile, Pavel Lyuzakov, a journalist for the Chechen rebel web site Kavkaz Center, was detained last Thursday by police near the VDNKh metro station in northern Moscow after he was found carrying a loaded pistol, Gazeta reported Wednesday. He was held for 48 hours before he was placed under arrest. He claims the pistol was planted, Gazeta said. Russian reporter 'silenced' for Chechnya coverage Julia Day Thursday January 27, 2005 A Russian investigative reporter who covered the Chechnyan war has been found guilty of forging his passport, in a verdict condemned by international journalists' groups. Yuri Bagrov has been effectively stripped of his passport in a move that media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers described as an "unprecedented" action against a journalist. The watchdog also said he and his wife - who is pregnant - had been harassed by the Russian secret police and had received anonymous phonecalls asking for "Bagrov's widow". Bagrov, an ethnic Russian who works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Associated Press, was the only remaining western correspondent working in Vladikavkaz, capital of the Russian North Ossetia state, scene of last year's Beslan school massacre. He was fined 15,000 roubles - £278 - for "forgery" on January 19 in a court hearing that he said gave him no chance to plead his case. The Russian authorities questioned the validity of the passport Bagrov obtained in 2003 as a replacement for his former Soviet passport. "They didn't give me a chance. The case was held at 4am on 19 January," Bagrov said. "No witnesses were called and the hearing was over in five minutes." Now, without a passport, the journalist finds himself stripped of his nationality and effectively stateless. Reporters Sans Frontiers said the case amounted to "systematic legal hounding" of an investigative reporter. "It is simply a case of silencing a journalist who had expressed himself on issues that local journalists do not touch because of the pressure they are under," said a spokesman for the watchdog. "Yuri Bagrov, deprived of his passport and of his nationality, now finds himself in legal limbo. If he was threatened with expulsion he would have no country prepared to take him," the spokesman added. The only recourse Bagrov has to overturn the court decision is to appeal to the North Ossetia supreme court after he has paid the fine. The Russian supreme court would be his final recourse. He has complained before that he was prevented from covering the Chechnyan elections or the Beslan school massacre after Russian secret service agents confiscated his travel documents. Bagrov has reported for Associated Press since 1999, writing numerous stories that included closely guarded casualty figures for Russian military and police forces in Chechnya. An ethnic Russian, he moved from Georgia to Russia in 1992 and his mother and wife both have Russian passports - normally enough to obtain a passport for the country. On October 6 he was told he was being charged with "forgery" despite having received the passport in 2003 after a regional court ruling according him Russian nationality. Then on December 29 local authorities ordered Bagrov out of a room of journalists gathered for a press conference held by the president of North Ossetia. Reporters Sans Frontieres recently condemned the obstruction of media coverage of the Beslan tragedy - when 329 people, mainly children, died - and voiced its concern at a possible extension throughout the region of the media blackout in force in Chechnya. There are growing concerns about press freedom in Russia following the massacre in Beslan, with two journalists claiming they were poisoned in an effort to hamper their reporting of the siege. Anna Politkovskaya, a respected Russian investigative reporter, fell ill after drinking tea given to her on a plane, while Nana Lezhava, from Georgia's independent Rustavi-2 TV station, believes she was given tranquillisers after being detained by the Russian authorities. Lezhava was arrested with a colleague on suspicion of violating visa rules but was never charged. After the tragedy Raf Shakirov was dismissed as the editor of Russia's best known daily, Izvestiya, two days after the newspaper carried strong criticism of the government's handling of the Beslan seige. A Russian non-governmental media-monitoring group in Moscow, the Glasnost Defence Foundation, believes that more journalists are being killed as a result of their work in Russia than many think. It says 13 journalists were killed in 2004 with another missing and presumed dead. · To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857 · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". |