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Russian Policeman Jailed for 11 Years for Torturing Chechen Detainee Created: 29.03.2005 13:34 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:34 MSK, MosNews A court in the Chechen capital Grozny sentenced a policeman from Siberia to 11 years in prison on Tuesday after finding him guilty of torturing a Chechen detainee, the Interfax news agency reports. The Nizhnevartovsk policeman, Dmitry Lapin, was convicted on counts of exceeding his authority and forgery of evidence. The court heard how in January 2001 Lapin and another policeman, whose identity has not been established, detained Grozny resident Zelimkhan Murdalov, took him to a police station and beat him up with rubber truncheons. As a result, Murdalov sustained a cerebral injury and lost consciousness. Lapin, who wanted to conceal his actions, took his victim in a car and left him at an unspecified location. After the court verdict was pronounced, Murdalov's father said he was not satisfied with the ruling, as he had still not found out where his son was. Kidnappings are common in Chechnya. According to the Russian Human Rights group Memorial about 80 people have fallen victim to kidnappers in the republic since the beginning of 2005 and about 50 are still considered missing. Wednesday, March 30, 2005. Issue 3135. Page 4. Chechen Court Convicts an Officer By Musa Sadulayev The Associated Press GROZNY -- A Grozny court on Tuesday sentenced a federal Interior Ministry serviceman to 11 years in jail for severely beating a Chechen civilian -- the first time such a trial has been held in Chechnya. Sergei Lapin, an officer of the elite OMON special forces who was serving in Chechnya, was convicted of causing severe bodily harm to Zelimkhan Murdalov and of abusing his authority. Murdalov, 22, left his home in Grozny on Jan. 2, 2001, saying he would be back in an hour, according to the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International. That was the last Murdalov's family ever saw of him, and his whereabouts remain unknown. His father discovered that a young man matching his description had been detained in central Grozny. Police told him that his son was detained on charges of possessing cannabis and was later released. However, detainees who had been held in the same cell reportedly said that when they saw Murdalov a day after his arrest he was unconscious after being severely beaten and his body was mutilated. A criminal case was opened in January 2001 into Murdalov's "disappearance," but his father still does not know the fate of his son. Relatives of the victim wept in court as the judge spent more than half an hour describing the details of his beating and torture, including electric shocks and the use of dogs, according to footage broadcast on NTV television. Lapin protested his innocence and denounced the court verdict as unfair. His lawyers will appeal, NTV said. "I didn't expect anything else," he said from inside a steel cage for defendants in the courtroom. "It's unlawful, unjustified and unproven," said Lapin, who was also barred from returning to service in the Interior Ministry for three years after he completes his sentence. But a lawyer for the victim's family said they welcomed the verdict even though it would not bring back Murdalov, believed to be dead. "They are satisfied. A crime has been acknowledged as a crime and a real punishment meted out," Stanislav Margelov said. Pro-Moscow Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, who heads a security force accused of carrying out abuses against civilians, welcomed the ruling as proof that Chechens had the full protection of the federal law. Chechnya's Moscow-appointed chief prosecutor, Vladimir Kravchenko, also expressed satisfaction with the outcome. "Police and military are not dispatched to Chechnya to kill, rape or humiliate civilians," he told Itar-Tass. The verdict was the first to be handed down by a Chechnya court against a federal serviceman accused of committing crimes against Chechens. A military officer, former Colonel Yury Budanov, was convicted by a Rostov-on-Don court in July 2003 of the kidnapping and murder of an 18-year-old Chechen woman. Human rights defenders have accused federal forces and their pro-Moscow Chechen allies of widespread abuses against civilians in Chechnya, including kidnapping, torture and extrajudicial killings. Hardly any of these alleged crimes are brought to court. Some 3,000 to 5,000 people have disappeared since 1999, according to local human rights groups cited by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, which said last week that federal forces were guilty of "a crime against humanity." eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 28/3/2005 Local government official abducted in Chechnya A local government official, head of the construction and architecture department Turpal-Ali Suleymanov, has been abducted in the mountainous Shali district, Chechnya, the republican ministry of internal affairs reported. According to the source, unknown people in camouflage uniforms with automatic weapons burst into Suleymanov's house and took him away in an unknown direction. Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 28/3/2005 Detentions of Chechens underway On 26 March in the village of Davidenko, Achkhoy-Martan district, Chechnya, security agencies captured Huseyn Suleymanov, a resident of the Samashki village, and took him away in an unknown direction. It is reported that the young man was in the house of his close relative and was lying with the medicine dropper. Locals say the military men, who conducted a clean-up operation in the village, burst into the house and dragged Suleymanov out in the street severely beating him. They threw him into one of their cars and took away in an unknown direction. The young man's relatives think he was delivered to the FSB (Federal Security Service) department in the Achkhoy-Martan district, according to the Council of Non-Governmental Organisations. On one of the roads in the Nadterechny district of Chechnya, according to local residents, security agencies detained a car driver and passenger going towards Grozny. They examined the car, inspected the men's documents, and then took them away in an unknown direction. PRESS-RELEASE #1217  FROM MARCH 22, 2005 Report from THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Grozniy. Minor became victim of blast from undetermined explosives March 21, 2005. At 10 p.m. there was an explosion on the second floor of apartment building # 9 on Murmansk street in the city of Grozniy. As a result of the explosion, caused by unknown explosive compounds, Tarkhan Nikaev (born 1992) was seriously injured. The teenager was brought in serious condition to the emergency room at the republic center for anti-septic surgery, where he passed away from the numerous shrapnel injuries. Plowing work at "Yubileyniy" sovkhoz hindered by the presence of mines March 22, 2005. At the sovkhoz "Yubileyniy", located in the Staraya Sunzha settlement in the Leninskiy district of Grozniy, work was begun to plow the soil in preparation for the sowing season. However, according to sovkhoz workers the work was hindered by the fact that a large part of the sovkhoz's fields have been mined. In addition, the land that was plowed last year was seized by Russian forces who are refusing to give up the territory. The farmers are convinced that the soldiers are the ones who mined the land that they do not occupy; they continuously offer to remove the mines in exchange for drink. The commanders of the armed federal units are not taking any steps to ease the plowing work at "Yubileyniy". The commanders do however promise to remove the mines on 30 hectares of arable land within the near future in the Shalinsk district of the Chechen Republic. (From our correspondent) PRESS-RELEASE #1219  FROM MARCH 23, 2005 Report from THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Achkhoy-Martan district. Special Operation carried out in Achkhoy-Martan March 20, 2005. Around 10 a.m. in the regional center Ahkhoy-Martan in the Chechen Republic officers of the Achkhoy-Martan regional police in cooperation with members of the Chechen OMON carried out a special operation to liquidate a number of participants in the so-called NVF being harbored in building number 34 on Mamakaeva street. Representatives from the police informed IC RCFS about the results of the raid. According to facts provided by police, two of the Chechen rebels were killed and one was brought to the regional hospital with bullet wounds to his back. Law enforcement agencies managed to establish the identity of one of the dead. He is Abu-Muslim Abuyazidovich Umaev (born April 6, 1975), residing at Sovietskaya street 21 in Achkhoy-Martan. According to information from the Chechen Interior Ministry, Abu-Muslim Umaev was the leader of OPG, operating in the territory of the Achkhoy-Martan region and the city of Grozniy. In the summer of 2004 Umaev took part in an attack by a group of militants on militia officers in the city of Grozniy. The wounded man is Murad Magomedovich Tsinaev (born September 10, 1981), residing on Mamakaeva street #34 in the regional center Archkhoy-Martan. Weapons and ammunition were discovered during the operation, including an APMS with 8 cartridges, an AKM assault rifle with nine cartridges, an F-1 grenade, an RGD grenade, two handmade grenades, a handmade pistol, a black weapons belt, notebooks with notes about armed operations, blank certificate forms from the Chechen Ministry of the Interior, and cassette tapes with agitation information. During a search of the home on Mamakaeva street were discovered: two rocket launchers, eight AK 47 clips, and khaki-colored masks. According to information received by the Achkhoy-Martan police, Umaev was, together with his accomplices, planning an armed attack on the police headquarters. (Our corr.) Sunzhenskiy district. State agency officers shoot man in the village Assinovskaya March 16, 2005. In the village Assinovskaya in the Sunzhenskiy district in the Chechen Republic, officers from unknown state agencies shot local resident Rizvan Akhmedovich Baysarov (born 1980). The correspondent from IC RCFS learned of the circumstances of the incident. On March 16, 2005, Rizvan Baysarov was going with his mother to the village administration to receive unemployment benefits. The man went inside the building while his mother waited for him outside. Three vehicles drove up to the building; gray Zhigulis of 7th and 10th models, and a third car of unknown make. Seven armed men, dressed in camouflage uniforms, emerged from the cars. According to eyewitnesses there were both ethnic Russians and ethnic Chechens among them. The men went toward the entrance of the building. Worried about her son, the woman asked him to come out from the building. When Rizvan Baysarov saw the group of armed men he ran from the building and decided to hide in a garden. The unknown men fell upon the man, and in connection with this opened fire, resulting in the shooting of Baysarov. After this, they fired additional shots in a controlled fashion in the man's head. Some witnesses say that Baysarov fired back at the officers, while others categorically deny that the man was armed, and did not fire any shots. These circumstances remain undetermined. (Our corr.) PRESS-RELEASE #1220  FROM MARCH 23, 2005 Report from THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Increase in vehicle inspections on part of the “Rostov-Baku” highway March 23, 2005. Part of the federal highway Rostov-Baku, located on the border between the Grozniy rural district and the Achkhoy-Martan district in the Chechen republic, was subjected to an increase in inspections. Roadblocks were set up at the turns of the road toward the village Khambi-Irze (Lermontovo) in the Achkhoy-Martan district and the village Gekhi in the Urus-Martan district, where increased inspections of traffic were carried out. (Our Corr.) PRESS-RELEASE #1221  FROM MARCH 23, 2005 Report from THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK Achkhoy-Martan district. Three people abducted in Achkhoy-Martan March 23, 2005.  Early in the morning, officers of unknown state agencies abducted three individuals in the regional center Achkhoy-Martan in the Chechen Republic.  At five in the morning armed forces wearing camouflage uniforms and masks came through the fence, broke down the door and stormed into the home of the Viskhanova family, residing on Nekrasova street 16.  Threatening to use their weapons, the attackers threw all the males that were in the home onto the floor. They were Viskhanova Ismaila Dzhabrailovitsa (born 1973), and his two nephews; Viskhanova Rustama Ruslanovicha (born 1981) and Viskhanova Murada Muslanovicha (born 1989).  Then, without explaining why, they seized Ismaila Viskhanova and his nephew Rustama and disappeared in an unknown direction.  Soon after the incident the relatives of the abducted males submitted a written statement about what happened to the district prosecutor.  During the day they were informed through unofficial sources that the abducted males might be either with the regional police, or at the UBOP unit in the city of Grozny.  They did not however receive any official confirmation about the whereabouts of their relatives. According to Murada Ismailova’s mother Mar’yam Sadulaevoy, the people who abducted her son and brother-in-law traveled in three vehicles, a ’99 Zhiguli, a Gazel’ minibus, and an UAZ (tabletka).  All vehicles were missing registration plates.  Some of the abductors spoke with each others in Russian without an accent, but the relatives of the abducted are convinced that the group consisted of both Russians and Chechens.  The woman claims that the abducted have no relations to the activities of so-called illegal armed formations. On the same day at 5:23 a.m., to all appearances the same group of abductors stormed in to the home of Masaev, located on Naberezhnaya street 38.  According to neighbors, the attackers were about 25-30 individuals.  Many of them wore masks.  Threatening to use their weapons, the attackers forced Masaev Said-Magomeda Abdulkhamidovicha (born 1973) out of bed, and without giving him his clothes took him away in an unknown direction.  The attackers also took his documents. According to the abducted man’s spouse Madina Katashevaya, her husband worked as a bus driver on the route between Achkhoy-Martan and Grozny. The couple is raising two children together.  The abducted man’s mother Berlant Masaeva is disabled and is being cared for by her son. New administrative head appointed in Achkhoy-Martan district March 24, 2005.  The appointment was announced of Musa Masaev, former administrative head in the village Zakan-Yurt, to be administrative head of the Achkhoy-Martan district of the Chechen republic. (Our corr.).