Relatives of blogger Alibekov report his beating up by law enforcers

After his detention in Kazan, law enforcers beat Askhabali Alibekov, a native of Dagestan and the author of the YouTube channel "Wild Paratrooper", so that he had large bruises, his daughter, Zalina Alibekova, has reported. After being beaten, the blogger needed an ambulance; and a complaint has been prepared against the law enforcers, Rim Sabirov, an advocate, has noted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 20, Askhabali Alibekov, a native of Dagestan and the author of the YouTube channel "Wild Paratrooper", was detained in Tatarstan; he was later arrested and charged with using violence against a law enforcer.

His daughter, Zalina Alibekova, has thanked her father's subscribers for raising money for him to pay for an advocate.

His family learned by chance that law enforcers had beaten Alibekov up. "He never complains. And we found out about this purely by chance. His brother saw him and said that there were serious bruises – in his face and body," Zalina has explained.

If Alibekov has filed a complaint about torture with law enforcement bodies, they are obliged to conduct a check, Sergey Babinets, the head of the "Team against Torture" (TaT)*, has emphasized. "According to our study entitled 'Torture Arithmetic', in 79 percent of cases, after a pre-investigation check, investigators refuse to open criminal cases," Mr Babinets has stated.

*The "Team against Torture" (TaT, formerly the "Committee against Torture" – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.