Chechen residents claim that their relatives were tortured by power agents to confess of committing explosion

Yusup Ektumaev, Makhmud Madaev, and Kemran Karsamov were detained on suspicion of involvement in committing explosion of an improvised land mine, committed on April 17 in the Cossack village of Assinovskaya of the Sunzha District of the Chechen Republic. Their relatives and lawyer claimed that the detainees were tortured. According to them, the detainees have confessed under torture and they intend to retract unlawfully given confessions at trial.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that explosion of an explosive device of unidentified type occurred in the outskirts of the Cossack village of Assinovskaya on the intersection of two streets - Akhmad Kadyrov and the 11th Red Army Streets. After the explosion, three young men were detained. According to the Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), they tried to commit a terror act.

On June 4, 2012, the representative office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Grozny was addressed by Aset Borchashvili, who temporarily lived in the Cossack village of Assinovskaya. According to the woman, in the evening of April 17, she and her son came to the Police Division. Yusup Imaev, Chief of the Sunzha ROVD (District Interior Division), began to accuse Ektumaev of his involvement in the explosion. According to Yusup Imaev, that was proved by the confession of Makhmud Madaev, who was detained earlier.

"Yusup denied his guilt. He said that in early spring he walked in the woods with his friends to dig wild garlic for sale and met there six unidentified armed men. They welcomed Yusup and his companions. Several days later, an identified man called Yusup, accused him of insulting his sister and demanded a meeting. At the meeting, Yusup was urged to join the ranks of illegal armed formations (IAFs). He refused; however, the strangers did not leave him alone and asked him to buy a mobile phone for them. He agreed on condition that they would not disturb him anymore. When he learned that his friend Makhmud Madaev travels to Grozny, he asked him to buy a mobile phone. Makhmud, who did not know, what for Yusup needed a mobile phone, complied with the request. According to Yusup Ektumaev, he had given 'the customers' the mobile phone and had not ever seen them," states the report of the HRC "Memorial", received at the address of the "Caucasian Knot" edition office.

According to investigators, that very mobile phone was used in the explosion. The meeting with suspected members of IAFs and purchase of the mobile phone for them was the reason for the accusations of aiding militants, charged against Yusup Ektumaev.

The woman reported that she had met her son in a month in temporary detention facility in Grozny. He said that he was tortured and forced to make a confession. According to him, Madaev and Karsamov, the other defendants in the case of the explosion, were also tortured.

Relatives of Makhmud Madaev said that on April 17, armed men in camouflage broke into his house. Without explanations, the power agents took Makhmud Madaev and his minor brother and brought them to the OVD (Interior Division) of the Sunzha District. "There, according to Makhmud Madaev, they were beaten and tortured. One of the power agents put a pistol to the head of the younger brother of Makhmud Madaev and threatened to shoot him dead, if the brothers did not surrender their arms and were not confess his involvement in committing the explosion. The power agents demanded that Makhmud Madaev also confessed that he had been involved in committing other terror acts; they asked about accomplices in the crime. Unable to withstand torture, he said he would sign the necessary documents," said the report of the HRC "Memorial".

According to the Human Rights Centre, the mother of Kemran Karsamov, who was also detained on April 17, was allowed to meet him only a month later. "Kemran said he had not been involved in committing the explosion; however, he incriminated himself under torture and signed a confession. In the ROVD, he met Yusup Ektumaev and noticed visible marks of beatings on his body. He advised Kemran to do what power agents demanded, if he wanted to survive. According to his mother, Kemran intends to retract confession that he gave under torture," said in the report of the human rights defenders.

According to the HRC "Memorial", the lawyer of Makhmud Madaev claims that she saw visible marks of beatings and torture on the bodies of three young men. She insisted on carrying out a forensic examination. Yusup Ektumaev waived the services of the lawyer, provided by the investigators. Besides, he and Makhmud Madaev retracted their confessions given under torture and gave new testimonies, in which they focused on violent methods of the interrogation.