A Dagestani MMA champion shared a graphic photo of his friend who cut open his own stomach for a moment's reprieve from police torture

On November 25, undefeated Russian mixed martial artist Khabib Nurmagomedov published a graphic photograph on Instagram showing his friend Akim Kuliyev on a stretcher, covered in blood with wounds to his arm and stomach. Dagestani police in Rutul have accused Kuliyev and two other locals of setting fire to the town administration building, and charged them with possessing illegal drugs and weapons. According to Nurmagomedov, his friend “cut open his own stomach” in protest against the daily torture he says police have inflicted on him to try to force a confession. Officials in Dagestan’s Interior Ministry and prison system deny that Kuliyev has been tortured, but human rights workers who have met with the prisoners say they suspect otherwise.

In mid-September 2017, the administration building in Dagestan’s Rutul district burned down

The fire started on the night of September 14 in the center of Rutul. No one was injured, but the town administration building couldn’t be saved. When the blaze was finally extinguished, all that remained were the walls. Officials didn’t report the cause of the fire, but an anonymous source told the Dagestani edition of the newspaper Argumenty i Faky that it was an act of arson. The authorities still haven’t commented officially on the September 14 incident, and the Dagestani government refused to speak about it with Meduza.

Police have detained three locals

On November 5, state security personnel (presumably special forces and a counter-extremism unit from Makhachkala) came to Rutul, where they detained three local men: Suleiman Guseinov, Muradin Eminov, and Akim Kuliyev. The suspects’ relatives told journalists from Kavkaz: Realii (an independent U.S.-government-funded media outlet) that police believe the men also stole several hundred thousand rubles from the administration building before burning it down.

According to Suleiman Guseinov’s brother, Mejid, a local man named Efendi was the one who testified to police against the three suspects. Mejid Guseinov says he’s certain that police tortured Efendi into incriminating himself and the others. Mejid also says that police officers planted drugs at Suleiman’s apartment when searching his home. He says that his brother, as a wrestling champion, never used drugs.

On November 6, a court arrested Guseinov, Eminov, and Kuliyev until January 3, 2018, placing them in pretrial detention on charges of arson and possession of illegal drugs and ammunition (but not theft).

Police say Akim Kuliyev organized an act of arson. His father is the deputy head of Rutul’s district administration

Akim Kuliyev’s wife, Elada, told Kavkaz: Realii that police planted drugs, an automatic weapon, and a full magazine when detaining him. She says officers also took 350,000 rubles ($6,000) from their home and another 100,000 rubles ($1,700) from one of the gas stations he owns. According to Elada, the police tortured her husband with electric shocks right in their home, threatening to kill her and their children, if Akim refused to sign a written confession.

Kuliyev’s wife says it was only several days later when he was able to call his father, Rutul district administration deputy head Arsen Kuliyev, and tell him that he was being tortured. Akim reportedly told his father that he still hadn’t confessed to the allegations, but worried that he would surrender if the torture continued. Meduza was unable to reach Arsen Kuliyev.

Mixed martial artist champion Khabib Nurmagomedov wrote on Instagram that his friend cut open his own stomach to protest torture by police

Kuliyev and Nurmagomedov are close friends. Nurmagomedov posted the photograph of a wounded Kuliyev on November 25, writing, “This isn’t the first day they’ve been torturing him, and during the latest round he cut open his own stomach, saying that he won’t confess to something he didn’t do.”

Suleiman Guseinov’s brother, Mejid, has confirmed that the self-injury occurred on November 24, saying that Kuliyev cut open his stomach when he couldn’t bear further torture by police. After the incident, he was transferred to a hospital for an emergency operation. Despite doctors’ warnings, Kuliyev was then sent back to his prison in Makhachkala that same day. Later, hospital officials announced that Kuliyev had suffered “only a few scratches.”

Dagestani Interior Ministry officials confirmed that Kuliyev wounded himself, but they haven't said why

On November 25, the press service of the Dagestani Interior Ministry wrote about the Kuliyev incident: “The detainee injured himself with shards from a broken tile in the stomach and arm regions.” On November 27, the ministry’s press service added the following details: “The detainee, with his back turned to video surveillance, tried to wound himself in the stomach region, leaning against the sharp corner of a tiled bathroom wall.”

Officials say the detainee received first aid, and categorically deny all torture allegations, promising to provide photos and videos proving that Kuliyev hasn’t been harmed by police.

On November 27, Dagestani prison officials also denied that Kuliyev has faced torture in state custody, reporting that he is under medical observation and doctors say his condition is satisfactory.

On November 26, Akim Kuliyev got a visit from Dagestani Public Monitoring Commission members Omar Omarov and Shamil Khadulayev. Prison officials told reporters that Kuliyev made no complaints about the conditions of his imprisonment or his treatment by the guards when meeting with Omarov and Khadulayev.

The next day, however, Khadulayev wrote that Kuliyev had appeared to be extremely stressed during their meeting, telling them that he had indeed stabbed himself in the stomach “because he was exhausted from the [guards'] physical coercion.”

Kuliyev’s wife says the blaze that destroyed Rustul’s administrative building wasn’t arson

Elada Kuliyeva says nobody started the fire that destroyed Rustul’s administrative building on September 14, claiming that a local state official can confirm that the building had very old wiring. Moreover, one of the suspects — Suleiman Guseinov — has an alibi for the night of the fire: video surveillance at a store he owns places him elsewhere at the time.

A group of locals reportedly told Kavkaz: Realii that they believe Rutul’s new Interior Ministry head, Artem Magomedov, is behind the arrests of Guseinov, Eminov, and Kuliyev, saying that he is trying to improve the town’s solved crime statistics and demonstrate his readiness to pursue criminals ruthlessly.

Russian text by Sasha Sulim, translation by Kevin Rothrock