Chechnya: detainees’ relatives have no information about them for over a month

Relatives of the young people, detained in January in the Kurchaloi and Shali Districts of Chechnya, state that they have no information about their whereabouts and fate. The police refused to specify the number of detainees and stated the ongoing investigation.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that residents of Chechnya reported mass detentions in eight dwelling settlements of the republic after the armed clash on January 11 in the village of Tsotsi-Yurt of the Kurchaloi District.

Relatives say that they have no information about the detainees’ whereabouts.

"Nobody is allowed to meet them; we don’t even know where they are and what specifically they are accused of," a resident of Kurchaloi District named Imran, whose close relative was among the young people detained in January, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"Only in the Muskiev family, they detained three young men, and the rest of family members were evicted. When distant relatives tried to find out something about the detainees, one of police bosses told them that they shouldn’t wait one of them back at all, and the other two would go to jail, because they were going to take part in some attacks,” said Abubakar, another local.

Local residents say they are afraid to apply to any human rights organization or the prosecutor's office regarding the detentions for fear to aggravate the situation of the detainees, as well as for fear of possible persecutions of their families, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.