Today, the lawyers with the Committee Against Torture submitted to the Basmanny District Court a complaint against the refusal to interrogate head of Dagestan Vladimir Vasilyev in the framework of the criminal case based on the murder of the Gasangusenov brothers, the shepherds. Previously, the investigator dismissed the human rights defenders’ motion to interrogate Vasilyev.
As we have already reported, on 26 January of this year head of the Republic of Dagestan Vladimir Vasilyev gave an exclusive interview to weekly periodical “Novoye Delo”. In this interview, Vladimir Vasilyev spoke about the murder of the sherpherds-brothers: “I was dealing with this case… I will try to explain. Imagine: SOMEONE, during the night, people are coming down from the mountains. And someone nerves broke down and he started to shoot… Indeed, a tragic accident happened, the kids died. But who are these boys from the Special Rapid Response Detachment (the SOBR police)? Who are they? The same kids, who found themselves in a very difficult situation. I’m sure they really had no idea these two were shepherds”.
With regard to this publication the lawyers with the Committee Against Torture applied with a motion to perform an interrogation of Vladimir Vasilyev to head of the investigative team Lev Gura, who is in charge of the Gasangusenovs’ murder case. Despite the fact that, according to the head of Dagestan, he was dealing with the case of the Gasangusenov brothers’ murder and was aware of a number of facts about the circumstances of this tragedy, Lev Gura decided to dismiss this motion of the human rights defenders.
“At the present time there are no grounds to interrogate head of the Republic of Dagestan A.A.Vasliyev in the capacity of a witness, in the interview of which there is no data on his awareness of the circumstances of the committed crime”, – investigator Gura’s conclusion was.
Today, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture submitted an application to the Basmanny District Court of Moscow insisting on declaring this ruling of investigator Gura to be illegal and ungrounded.
“Any information on the circumstances of the Gasangusenov brothers’ murder is very important for the investigation and for the search of the truth, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Abubakar Yangulbayev, representing the interests of the father of the deceased, Murtazaali Gasangusenov, comments.
– In his interview, the head of Dagestan is not only stating that he was dealing with the brothers-shepherds’ murder, but he also tells about the involvement of the Special Rapid Response Detachment officers, who, according to the preliminary data, did not participate in the counter-terrorism operation. Without a doubt, these and other facts, known to Vladimir Vasilyev, should be officially registered in the framework of an interrogation”.
As we have previously reported, eighteen-year old Gasangusein and seventeen-year old Nabi Gasangusenov were shot by unknown persons on 23 August 2016 not far from their village Goor-Khindakh of the Shamilsky District of the Republic of Dagestan. Their father, Murtazaali Gasangusenov, applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance in June 2018: he thinks that law-enforcement officers may be involved in the death of this sons. Murtazaali asked human rights defenders to be his representatives in the criminal case on the murder of his sons.
At the present moment the criminal case is still at the stage of preliminary investigation with Senior Investigator on Major Cases under Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Lev Gura.