- The Murderer of Farid Babaev Sentenced to 15 years in Prison

On 3 June 2010, a sentence was announced in the Supreme Court of Dagestan for Rasil Mamedrizaev whom a jury of his peers had earlier found guilty for the murder of Farid Babaev, the leader of the Dagestan regional unit of the party “Yabloko”. The judge Zakir Irafilov sentensed Mamedrizaev to 15 years in a high security facility.

The jury of peers passed their judgment on 21 May 2010 after nearly 11 hours of deliberation. The jury considered that Mamedrizaev is guilty of committing Babaev’s murder as part of a group organized specifically for the said crime. The second man charged, Sifirali Sefirmirzoev was exonerated.

After the sentence was pronounced, the convicted man began to shout threats directed at the family of the victims. The brother of the murdered victim, Artur Babaev, who actively took part in the investigation of the case, was told: “I’ll kill you!” As the matter stands, the victim’s side does not intend to challenge the judgment.

Memorial notes with satisfaction that the law enforcement agencies of Dagestan succeeded in bringing the perpetrator of a high-profile political murder to justice.

We hope that the investigation of the case will continue until all those responsible for ordering the murder of Farid Babaev are found and made to answer.

HRC Memorial on the investigation of the case of Farid Babaev’s murder: http://www2.memo.ru/d/1716.html

- Individual Abducted in the Kizlyarsky Region of Dagestan

On 31 May 2010, in the village of Chernyaevka of the Kizlyarsky region, Dagestan, Nazhmudinov Akhmednabi (D.O.B. 1986) was abducted at the address Vakulenko str.,25.

At 5 p.m. in the evening, Akhmednabi and his brother, Askhab were standing in their yard. Askhab left for ten minutes and when he returned his brother was already gone. Askhab noticed a black “Lada-Priora” car without license plates driving off. This vehicle was also seen by Aminat Omarovna Nazhmudinova, the mother of the disappeared individual.

According to relatives of the abducted individual, they had earlier seen the vehicle constantly around their house. It would leave and then come back again. The people in the car openly followed the Nazhmudinov family. Members of the family noticed this shadowing for about 5-6 months.

Akhmednabi has already been abducted twice.

In October of 2009, he was arrested around his home in the village of Chernyaevka while he was returning from Nizhnyi Novgorod. Akhmednabi was taken to the Kizlyarski police station where he was detained for about four hours until he was released. Akhmednabi was arrested the second time by police officers from the Kizlyarski police station. This took place around 8 p.m., the same day as the terrorist attack in Kizlyar of 31 March 2010. Nazhmudinov was walking home with a relative when both of the men were abducted, detained for a night at a police station and then released the next day in the afternoon. The police confiscated 3.000 rubles which were in Akhmednabi pocket. Akhmednabi was detained this last time again at the Kizlyarski police station, even though relatives were told the first day that he was not there.

Law enforcement authorities began to pay close attention to the Nazhmudinov family from the time when one of the brothers, Oki Nazhmudinov (who served in the Russian armed forces in Chechnya from 1999-2001 and returned an invalid), left for the “woods”.

According to relatives, Oki had begun to be persecuted because he was allegedly participating in illegal militant units. After Oki was taken multiple times to the police department, interrogated, threatened, and released, his relatives consider that he was forced to flee to the “woods”.

There have already been two searches of the home where Oki’s parents and his younger brother, Akhmednabi live. The home of Oki’s family and his brother Askhab are also regularly searched. In these searches, police officers do not present themselves and do not show their authorization for the search. The searches are also conducted without any witnesses. The families have appealed to the Federal Security Service as yet without any results.

Akhmednabi Nazhmudinov regularly travels to Nizhnyi Novgorod to work and he his currently building a house in Dagestan with the money earned from his job. Upon his previous arrests, he was asked repeatedly from where he receives the money to build a house and why he is absent for such long times.

On 7 June 2010 Akhmednabi Nazhmudinov was supposed to be married.

For further information: Memorial