HRC "Memorial": Chechen police detain at least 100 after dam explosion

Within the last eight days, at least one hundred residents of Chechnya were taken to the police in connection with the investigation into the explosion on the dam; one of the detainees died under unclear circumstances, the HRC "Memorial" reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at night on February 24, an explosion occurred on the dam in the settlement of Chernorechie in Grozny, which killed three people. None of them was known as a militant. After the incident, it became known that two residents of the nearby village of Gvardeiskoe were detained.

According to locals, two of the casualties lived in Gvardeiskoe; the third one was a resident of the village of Nadterechnoye.

Residents of the Nadterechny District of Chechnya have confirmed to rights defenders that four hours after the explosion, relatives of the casualties from Gvardeiskoe were visited by power agents and took family members to the ROVD. They were held there for three days and then released with a demand to leave Chechnya, villagers said, adding that at the same time, according to their information, law enforcers began detaining, throughout the area, young men, who had been acquainted with the casualties.

"According to local residents, from February 24 to March 2, at least a hundred people, and possibly more, were detained. Their relatives refuse to talk to rights defenders," says the release of the HRC "Memorial" received by the "Caucasian Knot".

Some detainees were taken to the police division of the village of Znamenskoe. On March 4, all the detainees were released without charging. Some detainees were taken to Grozny; but rights defenders could not clear out their fate.

According to villagers, one of the detained residents of Gvardeiskoe was Kana Afanasev, 23. In the morning on February 26, armed power agents came to his house and demanded to give him out. However, since he was working in a building team in Grozny, his relatives gave his phone number to power agents. Those left, but after that the communication with Afanasev was lost. At night, power agents brought his dead body to relatives.

"There were no visible signs on his body, except for small points on hands, similar to burns from electrical current. Relatives were ordered to bury him according to Muslim traditions, but without arranging an official funeral," rights defenders report.

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