27 June 2008, 12:08
Relatives of missing people rallying at prosecutor's office of Dagestan
In Makhachkala, near the building of the Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan, relatives of two young men, who had been kidnapped, as they assert, by employees of law enforcement bodies, have organized a spontaneous rally and blocked the traffic in the Yaragskiy Avenue.
According to the protesters, on June 24, Ali Zalitinov, 30, and on June 25, Idris Guchakaev, 29, were kidnapped. They were detained in the presence of witnesses by armed persons in civil clothes, who presented themselves to be employees of "Department Six" (the name in Dagestan for the Units to fight organized crime, extremism and criminal terrorism), and taken away to some unknown place.
Residents of Dagestan have repeatedly protested against kidnappings, and in early June Svetlana Isaeva, chair of the Dagestan Regional NGO "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights" complained to the public prosecutor that inspectors never check data on whereabouts of kidnapped persons.
The "Gazeta.Ru" writes that this time representatives of the protesters were received by the Public Prosecutor of the Republic Igor Tkachov. He asked the relatives of the kidnapped persons to give him two hours for finding out the fate of the two young men, and the protesters then agreed to unblock the Avenue.
