Residents of Chechnya complain of torture after anti-drug raids

Magomed-Ali and Magomed-Sidik Mezhidov brothers, detained in Chechnya in the course of the anti-drug campaign, have filed a complaint to the Prosecutor's Office about torture, which forced them to defame themselves.

In their complaint sent to the Prosecutor's Office, the brothers reported that they were detained on August 14, 2017, but their detention was not formally registered until August 31, two weeks later.

According to the Mezhidov brothers, they were tortured with electric current, a plastic pipe, handcuffs and Scotch tape, and law enforcers threatened to torture them until they confessed. The brothers were demanded to give up the names of their fellow villagers who accepted or sold drugs. One of the brothers, Magomed-Sidik, was threatened with the institution of a criminal case under "terrorist" articles, the "Mediazona" reported on January 16 with reference to the investigation conducted by the edition "Republic".

Law enforcers "do not stand on ceremony" with people, from whom they want to get confessions. Meanwhile, people suspected of drug trafficking are subjected to particularly brutal torture, like alleged gays or militants, reports a former member of the law enforcement bodies of Chechnya.

"If a case is related to drugs, non-traditional sexual orientation, or Wahhabism, it is a common thing for law enforcers to humiliate a suspect, to beat him to death, or to use torture with electric current. Those methods are usually used within several after detention to get a confession. It is clear that no one has ever recognized the use of the methods mentioned above and no one will ever recognize that," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by the source that preferred to remain anonymous.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.