During three months, 24 persons kidnapped in Chechnya, HRC "Memorial" reports

In the period from October to late December 2015, at least 24 people were kidnapped in Chechnya by law enforcers. This was reported by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial". According to the human rights defenders, one of the kidnapped persons was found dead, and the fate of six other kidnapped persons remains unknown.

The HRC "Memorial" reports that during the last three months of 2015, "numerous enforced disappearances of people involving law enforcers" occurred in the Chechen Republic.

"Most of the people were released after some time. However, the fate of some of them is still unknown," states the press release.

The human rights defenders have also listed the cases of kidnapping of Chechen residents, which occurred since October 2015. So, according to the human rights defenders, in October, law enforcers detained and took away to some unknown destination eight young men, residents of Grozny.

"Six of them were released a month later, and till present, there is no information about the fate of the other two men," states the press release.

According to the HRC "Memorial", in late December 2015, law enforcers presumably OMON (riot police) fighters detained eight other young men. Two of them have not been released yet.

Khizir Ezhiev, one of the kidnapped men, an economics lecturer from the Grozny Oil University, was killed.

According to the human rights defenders, in recent years, residents of Chechnya usually do not want to make public information about kidnappings of their relatives.

"Transparency could be the way out of this vicious circle. Furthermore, the dissemination of information on specific cases of kidnappings would save disappeared persons," emphasizes the press release.

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