Relatives of arrested Buynaksk residents excluded their involvement in IS*

The residents of Buynaksk, accused of links with militants, told investigators about their plans to leave for Ukraine to study the sabotage activities there, Arsen Shabanov, an advocate, has stated. Relatives of Ramazan Zakaryaev and Samat Tatarkhanov pointed to the practice of fabricating terrorism cases by law enforcers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in November 2018, Samat Tatarkhanov and Daniyal Zagirov, residents of Buynaksk, arrested on the charge of possession of weapons, complained to the Public Oversight Commission (POC) that they were tortured with electric current after their detention, taken to the forest, and, being at gunpoint, with video recording, were forced to read out the oath to the leader of the "Islamic State" (IS), a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court. Two other suspects, 17-year-old teenagers, were placed to a juvenile penal colony.

The fact of torture of the young people after their detention was not recorded, although the detainees insist that they were tortured, Mr Shabanov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to investigators, the defendants had planned to go to Ukraine to study the military business and how to operate drones, and then to apply this knowledge when organizing terror acts in Dagestan. "These are their first testimonies, according to which they had plans to go to Ukraine for training. According to investigation materials, they also discussed plans to go to Syria," the advocate Arsen Shabanov has added.

Zaira, Ramazan Zakaryaev's mother, insists that the son had never had any problems with the law. She is sure that Ramazan has no relation to militants and had self-slandered under torture.

"I'd have demanded to punish him myself, if he was guilty, but here, for the sake of statistics, they kidnap young guys and make militants of them," Zaira told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Zumrut, the mother of the arrested Samat Tatarkhanov, shares the opinion that law enforcers fabricate cases on terrorism against innocent young people.

"They detain young people, torture them and force them to confess to terrible crimes," Zumrut told the "Caucasian Knot".

* "Islamic State" (IS, former ISIL) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia by the court

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 25, 2019 at 04:38 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.