Murad Amriev applied to human rights defenders with the Joint Mobile Group in Chechnya (JMG) for legal assistance. The man complains that he was tortured by a local high-ranking police officer Magomed Dashaev.
(Photo: Murad Amriev)
According to Murad, late in the evening on August 25 he was giving a ride to his father to the center of Grozny. A few minutes after they separated his car was blocked by a black “Lada-Priora”. Three men ran out, pushed Murad into their car with his T-shirt pulled over his face and drove him away. It should be noted that these circumstances are confirmed by a resident of a neighboring house who wishes to remain anonymous.
Mr Amriev asserts that he was taken to the Directorate of the Interior (UMVD) premises at Prospekt Isaeva street in Grozny city. There he was kept under detention in handcuffs for two days being severely beaten, humiliated, hung from the ceiling, and tortured with electricity. Murad states that one of his abductors was Magomed Dashaev, a high-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior for the Chechen Republic.
Murad mentioned that he had already been detained at Mr Dashaev’s command: in 2010 the police officer suspected Murad’s elder brother of an attempt to kill him in 2008. However, the elder Amriev has moved from Chechnya to Germany long ago, and now Chechen policemen find it difficult to reach him.
This time the officer was interrogating Murad on the same issue but with much severer attitude. According to Murad, he did not possess the necessary information, but he was forced to sign several documents under the torture.
Two days later, in the evening of August 27, Magomed Dashaev and his people brought Murad back home to his parents. About 15 men entered the Amrievs’ apartment. Negotiations started. Mr Dashaev’s main demand was to have Murad’s elder brother back in Checnya. However, due to security concerns the Amrievs could not guarantee his returning. This did not satisfy Mr Dashaev, so he immediately stood up and left. The Amrievs were told that if the elder brother does not come back, Murad will bear all the responsibility for the attempt to murder Dashaev in 2008.
The next day Murad was requested to appear in the police department again. The young man did have serious grounds to fear for his life, so he decided not to go. Now he is receiving medical treatment outside the Republic of Chechnya.
“We have initiated a public investigation into these circumstances”, says Anton Ryzhov, the lawyer with the Joint Mobile Group, It is too early to draw any final conclusion. However, if the detention of Murad Amriev was not officially acknowledged by the authorities or properly registered, it consisted a serious violation of international law and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in particular. If the authorities do not try to dispute the fact of Murad’s detention, the burden of proof will rest on the authorities to provide a satisfactory and convincing explanation in respect of the injuries the man sustained being within their control in custody”.
The Joint Mobile Group lawyers have filed a crime report concerning the circumstances in question with the Regional Investigative Committee.