Most of the thousands of kidnappings in the Chechen Republic that happened in last ten years remain unsolved, the destiny of the kidnapped remains unknown.

It is obvious that this can happen only as the result of systematic sabotage of investigations by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and investigating bodies. When we, human rights defenders, get access to the materials of the criminal cases, we can give documentary confirmation to this fact.

Zarema Gaysanova, member of the Dutch Refugee council, was taken by the unknown police officers of the Chechen Republic from her own house during the special operation on October 31, 2009. According to official information Ramzan Kadyrov headed the operation. After that Zarema Gaysanova disappeared.

Gaysanova’s mother applied to the European Court of Human Rights. The Court requested from the Russian government the materials of the criminal case. HRC Memorial which represents the applicant got access to these materials. Having become familiar with them, we can state that the investigation of the case is being sabotaged by the bodies of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs and by the officers of the Investigative Committee under the Russian Public Prosecutor’s office, as well. There are obvious marks of forgery in some of the documents.

For the details and the documents (in Russian) visit Memorial’s web-site: http://www.memo.ru/2010/04/16/1604101.htm

For further information: Memorial