Defence voices out details of Dagestani Magomed Magomedov’s torture case

The inquiry into the violence against Magomed Magomedov raises questions from the public in Dagestan, while advocates are preparing to fight the investigators’ refusal to open a case against the law enforcers involved, despite the traumas fixed on his body by the examination.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that investigators had refused to open a criminal case on the torture of Magomed Magomedov, a Dagestani native.

Sergey Babinets, the head of the "Team against Torture" (TaT)*, believes that it is unlikely that a criminal case will be opened based on Magomedov's statement. According to his version, the statistics kept by the TaT* confirm this trend. "In more than half of the cases of torture allegations, criminal cases are never opened," he has noted.

The prosecution has claimed that Magomedov is a relative of supporters of the banned terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS)** who are on the wanted list. Law enforcers failed to present any arguments in favour of the version about Magomedov's ties with the IS**, the advocates assert.

According to Shamil Khadulaev, the chairman of the Public Oversight Commission (POC) of Dagestan, the case caused a wide resonance in Dagestan. "People wanted justice. There were traces of torture ... no one doubted what had happened, but in the end the decision was made not to initiate a case," he said.

*The "Team against Torture" (TaT, formerly the "Committee against Torture" – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.

**On December 29, 2014, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the organization "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL or IS) as a terrorist international organization and banned its activities in Russia.