Relatives of the Derbent detainee claim he is being tortured in a district militia department

Co-chair of Pravozaschita NGO Gulnara Rustamova has informed today that families of the local residents Akhmed Akhmedov and Karib Vagabov, who were  abducted on 8 May in Derbent, approached her with information about the detainees being assaulted.

Karib Vagabov's wife Shamsi told about her husband's abduction with the details she had learned from the eyewitnesses. "On 8 May, at about 1 pm, my husband left home and went to 345 Strelkovaya Diviziya Street, not far from our place. He was waiting for his friends there. One of them had already driven up and my husband was about to join him, when suddenly two cars approached them - the blue car VAZ 21099 without a numer plate and Lada Priora KM173X. Some armed men in civilian clothing leaped from the cars."

According to Shamsi, her husband started running off, while his friends have been already captured and put in cars. "At the corner of 345 Strelkovaya Diviziya Street and Stroitelnaya Street, the five men grabbed my husband and started beating him brutally. There is a beauty salon opposite this place and people inside it heard him shouting "help me!" The witnesses from the Rospechat stall and the shoemaker's shop also saw him being beaten and bleeding", the woman told.

Then, she informed, her husband and two of his friends were taken away to an undisclosed location, which she learned from the casual bystanders four hours later after the accident. "Karib's cell phones did not answer and the same day we went in search of him. Mother-in-law was searching for him in militia department but was told he was not there, although later we found out that he had been there", Shamsi said.

The other day, on 9 May, the family learned that Vagabov was in the militia department where he was beaten and tortured. Also, witnesses and sources in the law enforcement bodies told them the detainees were put into a car that morning and taken to a militia post in Derbent suburbs. The guards did some shooting there and drew up a report which stated that they had caught the armed terrorists and staved off a terror act. "Moreover, the report is dated May 9, not 8 when they were actually detained', she underlined.

The two friends of Vagabov were released a week later but the investigation of their case is in progress now - they are charged with illegal possession of weapon.

But Vagabov himself is still in Derbent pre-trial detention center. His advocate Ziyavutdin Uvaisov told the wife of the detainee that the latter himself asked to be transferred to pre-trial detention center because in the militia department he was repeatedly beaten.

"His face became unrecognizable, turned blue, with bruises under his eyes and at the temples. And this is only what is most visible exteriorly. One could only guess his internal injuries for he has no medical examination. We asked to make him an ultrasonic scanning at our expense but we were not allowed", Shamsi said.

She stressed that the 23-year-old Vagabov was a quiet and religious man. He works by his brother in a workshop for plastic window manufacturing. She believes that the case against her husband was fabricated because he prays, goes to the mosque and for these reasons, he like many others, falls into alert zone of anti-terrorist fighters.

Head of the Derbent militia department Esedulla Gasanov assured that his co-workers did not beat detainees. "Vagabov is treated normally; he is not beaten, not tortured. He is charged with armed group organizing. Conditions in the pre-trial detention center meet the European standards, PACE rep visited and checked us recently", he said adding that Vagabov's advocate easily comes and sees him.

"Religion has nothing to do with it. No one suffers for religiosity; on the contrary, we are glad when people are religious - it unites the community. Those who engage in armed resistance are seeking the Russian Federation destabilization", head of the Derbent militia department Derbent Esedulla Hasanov stated.

However, Vagabov's advocate Ziyavutdin Uvaisov said, "I saw Vagabov in prison. He was beaten, tortured - as you could clearly see by his face - and hold in the basement. He was tortured by the men in masks. As far as I know, the guys detained with him were also beaten. Now he is charged under article 205 part 2, note of CC RF (organizing of illegal armed group or engagement in it). The investigation alleges that my client was aiding the armed insurgents. But his aiding was that shortly before his arrest, at his friend's request, he bought the medicine and gave it to a man, who turned out to be a member of some squad."

"We will insist on a medical certification for documenting all beatings and tortures that my client underwent. Information about this case must be widely spread", the advocate says.