Resident of North Ossetia asserts that his son is prosecuted on ethnic motives

Zaurbek Bolataev, a resident of the city of Beslan (North Ossetia), has addressed human rights organizations of the country for help because of criminal prosecution of his son Nikolai Bolataev, a student of the Novosibirsk Higher Military Command School.

On March 5, 2008, Radmir Sagitov, a first-year trainee of the Novosibirsk Higher Military Command School and resident of the Republic of Bashkiria, committed suicide.

Charges under Articles 110, 335 and 286 of the Russian Criminal Code were presented to seven trainees of the Higher School; six of them being residents of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, among them Nikolai Bolataev, and one - a native of Abkhazia.

In his letter, addressed to the Human Rights Society "Memorial", Zaurbek Bolataev wrote in particular as follows:

"We know that neither my son nor other detained Ossetian guys had absolutely nothing to do with what happened. Moreover, they did not even know the boy who killed himself, as they studied in different platoons. However, nobody would listen to their arguments, the commanders made scapegoats from our boys and try to make them guilty of what the commanders themselves should be."

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has contacted an advocate from Novosibirsk, who preferred to stay anonymous. He has confirmed all the facts presented in the letter, and the presence of the racial background in this "Ossetians' case".