HRC "Memorial" reports detentions of young people in marketplace in Grozny

On February 11, power agents were detaining young people in the marketplace in central Grozny, told Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has reported. Eyewitnesses associate these detentions with the incident in the village of Tsentaroy, where the wall of one of the buildings was decorated with the symbols of the "Islamic State".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported about detentions of young people in Tsentaroy, the ancestral village of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, where on February 9 on the wall of one of the buildings a flag of militants and an inscription in support of the "Islamic State" (abbreviated as IS, formerly – the ISIL), recognized in Russia as a terrorist organization, appeared.

On February 11, employees of the Grozny office of the HRC "Memorial" came to the marketplace "Berkat" after a telephone call of a man, who reported that power agents had beaten up a young man in the territory of the marketplace.

Visitors of the marketplace also told the employees of the "Memorial" that power agents stopped young men with beards and shaved off moustaches and asked why they had shaved their moustaches; and, if the answer did not satisfy them, they took the young men away. According to eyewitnesses, the young was beaten up, who did not want to leave his brother, whom power agents tried to take away.

It is now reported that the detainees have already been released, said the HRC "Memorial".

From time to time the police commanders demand from their subordinates to bring "suspicious" people to police stations, said a former employee of the republic's power bodies.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.