HRC "Memorial": Gudermes residents kept in a secret prison

For the ninth day already, at least 13 residents of Gudermes have been unreasonably kept in custody by Chechen law enforcers, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports. The human rights defenders express their concern that law enforcers torture the detainees in an attempt to force them to incriminate themselves.

On November 5, law enforcers detained residents of the eastern outskirts of Gudermes for 24 hours and took them away from their houses to some unknown destination, city residents told employees of the HRC "Memorial". In total, according to the city residents, more than ten young men were detained. The human rights defenders managed to find out the names of 13 detainees.

According to the HRC "Memorial", all the detainees are being kept at a law enforcement body in Grozny. "It is clear that in this case there is another gross violation of the Russian law: the detainees have been deprived of their liberty for more than eight days without a court's order, and they are being kept in a place not intended for keeping detainees and arrested persons, in fact, in an illegal prison. There are reasons to fear that the people who are being illegally kept in custody there may be subjected to unlawful pressure (up to torture) in an attempt to force them to incriminate themselves or other people," the human rights defenders noted.

The detentions of Gudermes residents were also reported in a Telegram channel by the 1Adat Movement, oppositional to the authorities of Chechnya. According to the 1Adat Movement, the residents of Gudermes were detained because of their religious views, which differed from the views on Islam, voiced by local officials.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 13, 2020 at 06:06 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.