Defence announces complaints of native of Chechnya about harassment in Murmansk colony

The staff of the Murmansk colony is worsening the custody conditions of Albek Dakhtaev, a native of Chechnya, convicted for links with militants, said his advocates, explaining that harassment in the colony intensified after the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) demanded to cancel the verdict to Albek Dakhtaev.

In May 2004, Albek Dakhtaev was found to have been a member of an illegal armed formation (IAF) in Chechnya in 2001-2002, as well as the person involved killings and assaults of policemen and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Later, the term was reduced to 24 years, his advocate, Oksana Preobrazhenskaya, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Albek Dakhtaev complained about unlawful punishments imposed on him in the colony, but on December 4, the court rejected his complaint, said Laura Letkauskaite, another Dakhtaev's advocate. These punishments have worsened his custody conditions in the colony, she explained.

This attitude to the inmate may have to do with the articles under which he was convicted, and with his attempts to achieve the cancellation of his verdict, the advocate has suggested.

Abu Dakhtaev, Albek's brother, said that Albek was detained when he was 18. He hopes that his brother's verdict will be reviewed, emphasizing that he had not participated in any IAFs. "He went in for sports. There was nothing else to do at that time: there was no work or study; the war was on," explained the resident of Chechnya.