Dagestani woman reports forced departure because of threats

Aida Milaidi, around whose apartment in Derbent a local deputy has built a shopping centre, has reported that she received state protection in Makhachkala. However, she is dissatisfied with the reaction of law enforcement bodies to her appeals regarding threats.

A report on the conflict of a deputy of the Derbent City Assembly with Aida Milaidi was released by the "Ren-TV" channel on February 22 and was widely discussed in Dagestan media and social networks. It said that a resident of Derbent found herself "walled up" in her own home after she refused to sell her apartment to the local deputy who had built a shopping centre around her apartment. According to her story, representatives of the deputy threatened her if she did not drop the claim. An official from the Derbent Mayoralty has stated that the local branch of the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party decided to suspend Rovshan Omarov's membership until the completion of proceedings within a criminal case of fraud and arbitrariness.

"The deputy (Omarov) has razed his mansions, the Vatican Cathedral, leaving my home in the middle thereof in order to starve out my apartment," Ms Milaidi says in the video report. According to her version, deputy's representatives had threatened her. "His people were constantly following me, threatening that if I didn't give up my complaints, they would bury me in the forest, break my legs, and no one would find me," she has stated.

Aida Milaidi said that she was not informed about the progress of the criminal investigation against Omarov and the results of the check. The other day she handed her application about threats from Omarov to Sergey Antonov, a deputy prosecutor of Dagestan.

"He flew into my apartment, grabbed me by the hair and put a pistol to my neck," Ms Milaidi has stated.

Now, she is under state protection, which she was provided after the initiation of a criminal case against Omarov. She lives in Makhachkala, since it is dangerous for her to be in Derbent.

"They have built up everything around my apartment, leaving a passage 62 centimetres wide. All the windows have been closed, leaving only one on the side of the yard ... This is my home, which, according to the Constitution, no one can deprive me of. I don't want to sell it for any money. I want to live there, in this area, in the city centre, I bought it for this," Aida Milaidi has noted.