How "mates of Arab terrorists" are killed in Chechnya

On October 18, 2003, at about 5 p.m., Lom-Ali Makalov, a local villager, was mortally wounded in the yard of his house (10 Verkhnyaya Street) in the village of Kulari, the Grozny (rural) district. A bullet lodged in Lom-Ali's chest. As it turned out soon, the shot was fired by a serviceman of the field engineer unit that was running a regular check of the road passing along the outskirts of the village. The shot was not meant for Lom-Ali - servicemen of such units often fire at bushes growing near the roads, at suspect heaps of soil and trash and so as just to be on the safe side.

In the nearest hospital located in the town of Urus-Martan, doctors established the fact of Lom-Ali Makalov's death. A medico-legal examination was not conducted. The bullet was not extracted from the body under the pretext that there were no specialists to do it.

The next day officers of the district commandant's office and police department arrived at Kulari and visited the Makalovs' house. They inspected the yard where Lom-Ali had been killed and went away. No further investigative actions in the murder have been taken.

In about ten days after the funeral, Lom-Ali's relatives learnt that on October 27, the following information was published by Internet media (Regnum News Agency, MVDinform.ru - the Russian Interior Ministry's website) with reference to the regional headquarters on the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus:

"27 October 2003 // The regional headquarters informs

<...>

Shaaman Atabayev, a member of Abu al-Walid's gangster unit, was killed on October 15, 2003. His body was buried by members of illegal armed units in the outskirts of the Dyshne-Vedeno settlement.

Under the similar circumstances, Lom-Ali Makalov, a member of Tazabayev's gangster unit, was killed on October 18, 2003. He was buried in the Kulari settlement."

Similar reports by the Novosti information agency and Gazeta.ru Internet source contained references to the words of Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, an official representative of the regional headquarters.

On October 30, another version under the title "Abu al-Walid's Mates Killed in Chechnya" appeared on the lenta.ru website:

"... The body of the Arab terrorist's other mate, Lom-Ali Makalov, was buried in the village of Kulari."

Soon the same report appeared in the Vesti Respubliki newspaper, which is published in Chechnya.

The slander painfully affected Lom-Ali's relatives. His brothers and nephews felt deep anxiety for their life and freedom as a rebel's relatives are automatically put on the lists of suspects. They decided to take extreme measures. At their urgent request, a gathering of Kulari villagers took place on November 1. Lom-Ali's brothers visited Grozny and managed to invite to the village gathering Movsar Khamidov, official of the Chechen President's staff responsible for relations with security agencies. They also invited correspondents of the republican television. Khamidov came to the gathering together with representatives of the commandant's and prosecutor's offices.

Villagers expressed indignation about the slander directed against the dead man, innocent Lom-Ali Makalov. They also remembered a great number of cases alike.
This time the public agents promised to examine the matter and punish the guilty. The prosecutor's office launched a criminal investigation into the murder of Lom-Ali Makalov.

The commander of the field-engineer unit the servicemen of which killed Lom-Ali Makalov was detained on November 13. The same day the exhumation of the dead man's body was carried out by the relatives' authority and the bullet was extracted.