11:25, 31 January 2019

Rights defenders demand to interrogate head of Dagestan on Gasanguseinovs' case

The "Committee against Torture" (CaT) has appealed to the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), asking to bring the head of Dagestan, Vladimir Vasiliev, as a witness to the murder case of Gasanguseinov brothers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in his interview to the "Novoye Delo" (New Cause) newspaper, published on January 26, Mr Vasiliev expressed the opinion that the brothers were shot dead because of a tragic mistake, and not as a result of law enforcers' malicious intent. His words caused a negative reaction in social networks.

On August 23, 2016, the 17-year-old and 19-year-old sons of Murtazali Gasanguseinov from the village of Goor-Khindakh were killed in the Shamil District. Law enforcers declared that the brothers were militants; however, the brothers' fellow villagers insisted that they had nothing to do with militants.

The petition asking to interrogate Vladimir Vasiliev was submitted to the senior investigator for especially important cases under the chairman of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), who is running the case, the "Kavkaz.Realii" reports with reference to Albert Kuznetsov, a lawyer of the human rights organization.

Based on Mr Vasiliev's interview, it can be assumed that to a certain degree he knows who was involved in the special operation, who supervised it, who used the firearms, and who could, but failed to take responsibility, rights defenders believe.

"Most probably, Mr Vasiliev is aware of the questions that investigators are now directly facing, therefore, he should be interrogated," Mr Kuznetsov has suggested.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 31, 2019 at 06:22 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.