HRC "Memorial" tells about torture of Baidulaev prior to his murder in Chechnya

Kazbek Baidulaev, who was killed during a counterterrorist operation (CTO) in the Sernovodsk District of Chechnya, had been kidnapped and tortured before he joined the armed underground, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 11, two alleged militants were killed during the CTO conducted in Chechnya. The casualties were identified as Rustam Borchashvili and Kazbek Baidulaev. Earlier, the latter's relatives had claimed fabrication of criminal cases against him.

Kazbek Baidulaev joined militants in 2012, but had been kidnapped and tortured since 2008, and by 2011, he was twice convicted for involvement in illegal armed formations (IAFs), says the publication of the HRC "Memorial" posted on October 15.

Kazbek Baidulaev was first detained on April 12, 2008; he was 20 years old at the time. After the arrest, he was tortured, forced to self-incriminate and was soon sentenced to six months in prison under the article on links with militants.

In October 2008, Baidulaev was released from jail, but six months later, on March 22, 2009, his relatives announced his kidnapping: armed men broke into the family's house in the village of Yandi and took the young man away. Three days later, Kazbek's relatives managed to find him in one of power structures.

"As he later told his mother, all this time he was beaten up, humiliated and tortured; and they forced him to self-incriminate himself. Then, Kazbek was brought to the Yandi outskirt, where he 'showed' a hideout with weapons, to which he had no attitude. At the trial Baidulaev also told in detail how he had been forced to self-incriminate, about the torture and threats, including rape," the material of the HRC "Memorial" narrates.

After the second self-incrimination, Baidulaev was sentenced under the same article on participation in an IAF, but already to two years in jail. He served his sentence in March 2011 and returned home. Having learned a few months later that law enforcers were asking his fellow villagers about him, Kazbek disappeared, explaining to his relatives that "he would not be able to once again withstand the torture and humiliation he had gone through."

The fate of Kazbek Baidulaev is an example of the fact that illegal methods of fighting the armed underground lead only to the expansion of the militants' mobilization base, said Oleg Orlov, a board member of the HRC "Memorial". Torture, kidnappings, secret prisons and burning down relatives' houses are practiced in Chechnya, while a fundamentally different legal approach to counteracting the underground has convincingly proved its efficiency in the neighbouring Ingushetia, where the republic's authorities had taken a course towards a dialogue with the society, the creation of a commission to adapt militants to the peaceful life and constructive interaction with militants' families.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 15, 2020 at 08:43 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.