To the head of the Investigation Administration

of the Investigation Committee

under the RF prosecutor’s Office for Chechnya

Lednev V.A.

In November 2009 a number of Russian human rights organizations created a Public Commission on Chechnya.

In order to obtain authoritative and verified information about human rights violations in Chechnya the Commission formed a Joint Mobile Group consisting of representatives of different Russian human rights NGOs to work on the territory of Chechnya.

On 7 February 2010 about 7 p.m. in Shaly, Chechnya, the police detained three human rights defenders: Dmitriy Egoshin (Regional public organization “Human being and Law”, Yoshkar-Ola), Roman Veretennikov (NGO “Mothers in support of the detainees, indictees and convicts”, Krasnodar), Vladislav Sadykov (Bashkirian represenatation of INGO “Committee against Torture”).  The detention was organized by Magomed Daudov and performed under his personal supervision. Mr. Daudov is the head of the Shaly District Department of Internal Affairs where the human rights defenders were taken after the detention.

The three detainees are lawyers of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of Russian human rights defenders that has been working in Chechnya since November 2009 investigating the allegations of torture, abduction and notorious murders in that Russian region.

Being engaged into one of such investigations, the human rights defenders were about to meet with an unknown Chechnya citizen who pretended to be the relative of an alleged witness of an unlawful detention. This “relative” turned out to be Magomed Daudov, head of the Shaly District Department of Internal Affairs, who suggested that Roman Veretennikov and Vladislav Sadykov should have a talk with him in the Department of Internal Affairs.

An hour and a half later the third JMG member, Dmitriy Egoshin, was detained by the traffic police.  The police took him to the Department of Internal Affairs under the pretext that they needed to check whether the car he was driving had not been stolen.

Oleg Khabibrakhmanov, employee of the Committee against Torture, managed to talk to someone introducing himself as Magomed Daudov (in Chechnya known as “the Lord”) on the phone and found out that the human rights defenders had been really taken to the Shaly district Department of Internal Affair and there were some investigative actions performed with their participation. According to Mr. Daudov, they were not detained officially, but they would stay in the Department of Internal Affairs till the morning. He claimed that the Federal Security Service and the Republican Prosecutor’s Office had been notified about the JMG lawyers’ detention.

When talking to the duty officer of the Shaly Department of Internal Affairs, Igor Kalyapin, head of the JMG headquarters, learnt that the three human rights defenders had not been detained officially, but they were really located in the Department of Internal Affairs and could not just go away because they “were taking part in some investigative actions”. The duty officer mentioned that the Federal Security Service and the Republican Prosecutor’s Office had been notified about the JMG lawyers’ detention.

According to the detainees, there were no procedural documents (detention protocol, administrative offense protocol, indictment, etc.) prepared during their stay in the Shaly District Department of Internal Affairs, they were not questioned as suspects, they were no charges against them. At the same time, when the human rights defenders wondered about their legal status, the police replied that they were not detained, but they could not freely leave the DIA. Thus, three individuals were, in fact, deprived of liberty for no reason.

Upon detention the lawyers were searched, their personal belongings (cell phones, voice recorder, and digital camera) were withdrawn; the seizure was not documented. Later the belongings were returned to their owners. It turned out that the recordings on the voice recorder had been deleted.

Besides, the human rights defenders’ car was inspected and some devices were seized, including an audiovisual recorder. Upon withdrawal the recorder was damaged and does not work anymore. The vehicle was searched in Dmitriy Egoshin’s presence, but no procedural documents were prepared and there were no legal grounds for such an inspection.

The detainees spent the night of 07 – 08 February 2010 in the rooms of the Shaly District Department of Internal Affairs unable to leave the building and having no clue about the grounds for their detention. They were released on 8 February 2010 around 10 a.m. The belongings of the human rights defenders were given back to them. The police insisted that they should write pledges stating that they had got their belongings back and they had not been subjected to psychological or physical pressure by the police. Later they found out that the audiovisual recorder was not functioning.

The actions of the Shaly District DIA staff, in particular, head of the DIA Magomed Daudov, amount to violation of article 286 of the RF Criminal Code (abuse of office). The violation consists of:

- unlawful detention of Veretennikov, Egoshin, Sadykov in the Shaly District DIA (no chance to leave the place; deprivation of the freedom of movement for 15 hours);

- unlawful search and withdrawal of detainees’ personal belongings (no grounds for these actions);

- unlawful inspection of the vehicle and withdrawal of objects found in the vehicle (no grounds for the inspection; no relevant procedural documents prepared);

- damaging of the equipment withdrawn from the vehicle (audiovisual recorder).

Therefore we urge you:

1) to check the above given facts in accordance with articles 144-145 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code;

2) to take a lawful and motivated procedural decision;

3) to inform the Public Commission of  Chechnya (109028 Moscow, 16/1Khokhlovsky Street, Public Verdict Foundation) about the results of the check.

Public Commission of  Chechnya:

Head of the Human Rights Institute    V.M. Gefter

Co-chairman of RPO  “Human being and Law”     S.V. Poduzov

Chairman of INGO “Committee against Torture”   I.A. Kalyapin

Director of the Public Verdict Foundation     N.E. Taubina

Chairman of NGO “ Mothers in support of the detainees, indictees and convicts ”

T.A. Rudakova

Chairman of the Memorial Komi Human Rights Commission     I.V. Sazhin

Executive Director of the Interregional Human Rights NGO “Committee 29”     I.N. Guirsh

President of the Siberian Human Rights Centre   D.S. Lantsov

Independent Information and Analytical Agency “Obyektiv” (Grozny)     Kh. Saratova

Board Chairman of the South-Siberian Human Rights Centre   M.V. Burmitsky

Youth Human Rights Movement (Voronezh)   A.Y. Yurov

11 February, 2010. Republic of Mari El. A cochairman of regional public organization “Human being and Law” Sergey Poduzov has met with students of Technological College.

Such meetings have become traditional, and they are held within the frames of internal work of “Law University”. In the form of live discussion Sergey Poduzov answered the questions that concern young people: described the activities of the regional public organization “Human being and Law” on the territory of the Republic of Mari El, the main directions of the work, the most interesting cases, achievements and perspectives.

Relationships of police and young people have been discussed during the conversation. Students were interested in their rights, where, when and how to submit complaints about illegal actions of law-enforcement agencies.

An important activity of the regional public organization “Human being and Law” is legal enlightenment of the population. Particular attention is paid to the work with younger generation: human rights defenders are often invited to educational institutions of the Republic of Mari El with discussions, lectures and presentations.

Broadcasting Company “GTRK Mari El”. Dmitriy Nikitin.

The territory of the capital pre-school institution “Rosinka” is a place for the rest for both children and adults: there is a sauna now in one of former buildings of kindergarten. How permission was obtained for this neighborhood? Why don’t the appropriate bodies monitor the observance of the rule of law? For the second year, parents are trying to get a response. Dmitriy Nikitin is trying to understand the situation. Comments are made by Irina Simakova.

On 11 February 2010, Public Commission of Chechnya, consisting of 11 human rights NGOs from different regions of Russia, submitted an application to the head of the Investigation Administration of the Investigation Committee under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Chechnya and Prosecutor General of RF with a request to perform a check and evaluate the quality of prosecutorial supervision over the lawfulness of detention of Russian human rights defenders.

You may remember that on 7 February 2010 around 7 p.m. in Shaly, Chechnya, the police detained three human rights defenders: Dmitriy Egoshin (Regional public organization “Human being and Law”, Yoshkar-Ola), Roman Veretennikov (NGO “Mothers in support of the detainees, indictees and convicts”, Krasnodar), Vladislav Sadykov (Bashkirian represenatation of INGO “Committee against Torture”).  The detention was organized by Magomed Daudov, head of the Shaly District Department of Internal Affairs, and performed under his personal supervision. The detainees spent the night of 07 – 08 February 2010 in the rooms of the Shaly District Department of Internal Affairs unable to leave the building and having no clue about the grounds for their detention. They were released at about 10 a.m.

The three detainees are lawyers of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of Russian human rights defenders that has been working in Chechnya since November 2009 investigating recent allegations of torture, abduction and notorious murders in that Russian region.

On 10 February 2010 workers of the Joint Mobile Group under the Public Commission of Chechnya Veretennikov, Sadykov and Egoshin detained by the Chechen police filed an application about the crime to the Shaly Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Investigation Administration of the Investigation Committee under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Chechnya.

Address of Public Commission of Chechnya was signed by V.M. Gefter (head of the Human Rights Institute), S.V. Poduzov (co-chairman of Regional public organization “Human being and Law”), I.A. Kalyapin (chairman of INGO “Committee against Torture”), N.E. Taubina (director of the Public Verdict Foundation), T.A. Rudakova (chairman of NGO “Mothers in support of the detainees, indictees and convicts”), I.V. Sazhin (chairman of the Memorial Komi Human Rights Commission), I.N. Guirsh (Executive Director of the Interregional Human Rights NGO “Committee 29”),  D.S. Lantsov (President of the Siberian Human Rights Centre), Kh. Saratova (Independent Information and Analytical Agency “Obyektiv” ), M.V. Burmitsky (Board Chairman of the South-Siberian Human Rights Centre), A.Y. Yurov (Youth Human Rights Movement (Voronezh)

You can see the address itself on the following websites:

http://www.manandlaw.info
http://www.pytkam.net/web/
http://www.publicverdict.org/topics/news/7970.html