Kizilyurt OVD, Dagestan: Torture, Falsification of Criminal Case, Theft of Valuables at Arrest

November 30, 2010 at about 11 pm in the village of Komsomol’skoe, Kizilyurt Region, Republic of Dagestan, policemen took the three Magomedov brothers, Rashid (b.1984), Rajab (b.1988) and Ismail (b.1991), from their home. As related by their father, Zainudin, he heard a knock at the gate and went outside to open it. On leaving the house, he saw up to 30 armed people in camouflage uniforms jumping over the fence into the yard. They behaved rudely, shouted at Magomedov and at members of his family; most of them were not sober. Without presenting any identification, they handcuffed the young men, not even giving them a chance to get dressed, and drove them to the police station. After the arrest, Zainudin Magomedov discovered that the policemen had stolen money from a pocket of his jacket, and that three mobile phones were also missing from the house.

At about 00:40 am later that night Zainudin Magomedov and his wife set off to the public prosecutor’s office to write an official statement, but no one would admit them inside. They spent two hours at the door of the prosecutor’s but the man on duty didn’t react in the slightest reaction to their entreaties. After that, they came to the Kizilyurt OVD, in order to report what had happened, but there too no one was prepared to listen to them and the duty officer would not allow them inside.

December 1st, 2010 at about 7:30 am people again came to the Magomedov’s home, some of whom were in camouflage uniform, some in civilian clothes. They presented a search warrant and conducted a search of the house.

By 9 am Ismail and Rajab were released from the OVD. They said that they had been beaten by policemen. On that same day Sapiyat Magomedova, a lawyer, invited by relatives, attempted to meet with Rashid Magomedov but she was not permitted. Only after an offical complaint to the public prosecutor’s office was the lawyer able to receive access to her client. During their meeting, she inspected his body and discovered clear signs of the use of violence on him, and also marks on his arms characteristic of electric shock torture. The lawyer reported the use of violence on Rashid to his relatives and to the Human Rights Centre Memorial. Sapiyat Magomedova ascertained that Rashid Magomedov was suspected for the arson of a shop in the village Stal’skoe, Kizilyurt Region and also for the purchase and storage of arms. However, no weapons have been discovered in his possession. According to the official version of the investigation, Rashid was carrying an submachine gun when he committed the crime: he had first opened fire on the shop and only afterwards set fire to it. December 2nd Sapiyat Magomedova visited her client again. He had been beaten up even more. The lawyer discovered a haematoma on his back in the region of the spinal column, on his fingers signs of electric shock torture, and liquid was seeping from one of his ears. The young man had been terribly frightened. He described how he had been tortured with electric shocks, but that if the policemen found out about this, they would torture him again. The lawyer called an ambulance, but as soon as the doctors began their examination the head of the temporary detention centre drove them away.

The lawyer made contact with the HRC Memorial and requested assistance. The executive director of Memorial Tatiana Kasatkina reported what had happened to the deputy Vice-Prime Minister on power structures of the Dagestan local government Rizvan Kurbanov, who in turn got in touch with the head of Kiyilzurt OVD.

December 3rd the head of the OVD sent for the lawyer Magomedova and gave her his word that her client would not be beaten any more, but still did not admit an ambulance. The lawyer turned to the Public Prosecutor and Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Dagestan, with an official statement and telegrams.

6th December In the evening, in the programme “News of Dagestan”, a report featured Rashid Magomedov and Magomed-Habib Saipudinov (he is also detained in the temporary detention centre of Kizilyurt OVD; as yet nothing is known to the HRC Memorial about the details of his arrest and detention). The newsreader announced that Magomedov and Saipudinov had been caught by police hot on their trail and confessed to the crimes committed, and that their ringleader had been killed during the course of a special forces operation in the village of Kirovaul, Kizilyurt region. But this does not correspond to actual events: in fact neither Magomedov nor Saipudinov had confessed their guilt. Their relatives intend to go to court against the television channel for spreading slanderous and incorrect information. December 7 Rashid Magomedov wrote an official statement addressed to the head of the inquiry commission of the Kizilyurt inter-regional investigative department (IRID), in which he declared that he had been beaten up. He requested that they conduct a medical examination, and initiate legal proceedings against members of the police for beating and torture. His lawyer Sapiyat Magomedova also appealed to the inquiry commission of Kizilyurt IRID with an application for the initiation of legal proceedings as to the beating of Rashid Magomedov and for him to be medicall examined. To her own appeal she attached her client’s statement, which he had given to her in a private visit.

As it stands, on the 7th December Rashid Magomedov’s examination had not been conducted and he is not being provided with medical care: it seems that they are waiting for the traces of his beatings and torture to disappear first. It is restricted to pass food and clothing through to him: his relatives waited four hours at the police station building but were not successful in getting food to him. The father and lawyer of the detained man claim that Rashid Magomedov did not commit the arson of the shop and that he has an alibi which can be confirmed by a large number of witnesses. Rashid worked all that day with his father in the greenhouse (neighbours and relatives support this). His father stated to the investigator that if he had not seen his son next to him at the moment that the crime was committed he would not be making such a fuss. “But, at the indicated time, at 7:30 pm, my son was next to me, and for this reason I’ll go right to the end, I will prove his innocence,” said Zainudin Magomedov. The faces of the criminals are known to have been captured by CCTV at the shop. Both father and lawyer have asked to be shown the video tape, stating that they will withdraw their appeals for an inquiry if Rashid is really displayed on film. But they have not been shown the video tape. To all appearances, the policemen at Kizilyurt OVD wanted to report a solved crime as soon as possible and a few hours after the arson they arrested Magomedov and Saipudinov.

Suspicion fell on the young men because in 2009 in the village of Komsomol’skoe a similar act of arson was committed. That time, Rashid Magomedov and Magomed-Habib Saipudinov went to the police and confessed to the crime. The case of the arson still had to be sent off to court and both of the young men were contractually bound not to leave the town. It seems that this was the reason that on that night, the crime having been committed, members of the Kizilyurt OVD, not even having received the statement from the shopkeeper of the burned-down shop, arrested Saipudinov and Magomedov, tortured them and beat them up, to gain a confession for the deed. The legal proceedings regarding the arson were only initiated after the arrest of the young men. Zainudin Magomedov turned to the human rights organization, to the Public Prosecutor’s office and to the Interior Minister of the Republic of Dagestan with an appeal to reinstate the rights of members’s of his family which had been abused: “I turn to you again to take steps in reaction to the unlawful and illegitimate actions of policemen who beat up my son, stole my money and mobile phones and behaved like barbarians in my house.”

December 10, 2010

For further information:

Human Rights Center Memorial, 127051, Russia, Moscow, Maly Karetny, 12

tel: +7 (495) 225-3118, fax: +7 (495) 624-2025, email: memhrc@memo.ru