Graduates of boarding school in Nartan village, Kabardino-Balkaria, are accused of theft

Those graduates of the boarding school located in Nartan village, Chegem District of Kabardino-Balkaria, who continue writing applications in defence of dismissed school director Liudmila Mamkhegova, were accused of stealing a computer, 17,000 roubles and passports from the study of the social teacher.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by the graduates, who had been interrogated at the militia station of Nartan and in the Chegem ROVD. Three girls and two boys are the suspects.

Olga Rybalko, one of the girls said that on June 8 she was detained right at the gate of the boarding school and brought to the Nartan OVD, where, according to her story, she was persuaded to confess of the theft. She burst into tears and said that she knew nothing about the incident. She was set free three hours later. Then, her sister Svetlana and teacher Evgenia Kazachenko were brought to the militia station.

Ms Kazachenko said: "Militiamen told me that the processor of the computer had been stolen for Liudmila Mamkhegova, as she needed to have the database on the pupils of the boarding school. I said that it was a lie, that Mamkhegova has nothing to do with the database, and I'll complain of them to Moscow. After these words militiaman named Arthur saw red and said that I'm free to complain anywhere; then, he added: 'If I need it, your fingerprints will be found in the place of the crime, and you will get into prison.'"

After interrogation and their written explanations, they were released.

According to pupils Roman Potapov and Yaroslav Migirov, they were kept at the station for six hours; they were abused and humiliated, and Migirov was also beaten. The certificate of his medical examination notes "a bruise of soft tissues and face grazes."

Migirov and Potapov were released after interference of Valery Khatazhukov, head of the Republic's Human Rights Centre.

The pupils said that on June 5 they had a meeting with Boris Murtazov, deputy minister of education and science, to whom they were summoned after they had addressed Russian Ombudsman.

The pupils have noted that they had seen no reaction at the ministry, "but when they came back to the boarding school, everybody already knew where they had been and what the talk had been about."

After that, the above theft took place. "It was staged," the pupils assert.

Alisultan Alishanov, director of the boarding school, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the theft had been really committed in his school and that he didn`t know that children were brought to the militia.

Director has refuted any assumptions that he was persecuting the pupils for their disagreement with Mamkhegova's dismissal.