Translated material
Kidnapping in Derbent style
In Southern Dagestan, in Derbent, unknown persons tried to kidnap a resident of the city of Dagestan Lights, Ramil Yarmagomedov. Let us note that the abduction was preceded by a call from Yarmagomedov’s friend. According to Ramil Yarmagomedov, his friend, Derbent resident Timur Aliyev, arranged an urgent meeting for him in one of the Derbent cafes.
After which, when Ramil arrived in Derbent at the appointed time, and when he was approaching the entrance to the Habibi cafe, a white Lada Priora car with tinted windows, without license plates, drove up to him, from which a man unknown to him got out and, without introducing himself, , in a rude commanding tone, told him to get into this car. At the same time, according to Ramil Yarakhmedov, the kidnapper tried to grab him. “When I asked what happened and who he was, this man grabbed my torso with his hands and began to force me into the car,” says Ramil Yarmagomedov.
At this time, according to him, another masked man jumped out of the car, and together with the first, they managed to push him into the back seat of the car. “I saw another man wearing a mask while driving,” notes Ramil. Then, according to him, the car began to move up Buinaksky Street, in the center of the old part of the city. However, after driving about 200 meters, Ramil again tried to escape from the hands of the kidnappers. “Trying to get into the front passenger seat of the car, opening the door, I tried to jump out of it,” says Ramil. At this time, according to him, the driver stopped the car, and the person who first approached him jumped out of the car and, striking him on the head with the butt of a pistol, tried to push him back.
“In turn, the two people remaining in the car from the passenger compartment pulled me inside - one by the belt, the other by the clothes. I started screaming and calling for help. People passing and passing us stopped, intervened in what was happening and did not allow the unknown people to kidnap me,” notes Yarmagomedov.
After the failed abduction, the kidnappers quickly left. “When people began to approach and try to free me, the man who hit me on the head with the butt of the pistol pulled the bolt, pointed the pistol at the people and began to threaten them. At this time, someone called him by the name “Malik” and added: “Put the gun away.” After that, he jumped into the car,” Ramil Yarmagomedov tells Caucasian Knot, adding that after that the car with the kidnappers drove off in an unknown direction.
The traces are lost
The further fate of Yarmagomedov’s friend Timur Aliyev, who invited him to an urgent meeting, is also unknown. After the incident, Yarmagomedov independently tried to find Timur Aliyev, but his relatives said that they themselves did not know where he was and had been looking for him for several days. According to Timur Aliyev’s relatives, on the evening of May 11, he and another guy left Derbent for Rostov-on-Don to visit his brother. And as they told representatives of the local human rights organization “Pravozashchita,” they suspect that law enforcement officers may be behind the abduction of young people. Yarmagomedov emphasizes that he recognized the voice of Timur Aliyev, and that it was he who called him.
Ramil Yarmagomedov also states that he does not know why the described incident could have occurred. He wrote a statement addressed to the prosecutor of the city of Derbent with a request to protect his rights and punish those who tried to kidnap him. At the same time, Ramil suspects representatives of the special services and law enforcement agencies of Dagestan of involvement in this and is afraid of further provocations against himself.
However, Yarmagomedov largely owes the thwarted kidnapping attempt to local residents - eyewitnesses who responded in time to pleas for help and scared off the kidnappers. The duty department of the Derbent City Police Department confirmed that they do not have any information on the incident, and also refused to comment on the fact that their employee may be involved in the abduction. The duty department also informed that no on-site special events were carried out in the city on May 13 by city department employees.
Bad tradition
Let us note that this is not the first case of kidnapping and oppression of practicing Muslims from the town of Dagestanskie Ogni in Derbent. Let us recall earlier that at the beginning of last month, a resident of the city of Dagestan Lights, 20-year-old Nurulla Abdullaev, reported that he and other Muslims were being oppressed by local law enforcement officers for religious reasons. According to Nurulla Abdullaev, all his problems began from the moment he began to strictly observe Islamic canons and wear a beard.
“I had just started praying and growing a beard when the police started visiting us more often. They told me and my mother that they didn’t like my new image: they say, only “Wahhabis” behave this way, they subsequently either go to the militants or provide them with assistance,” noted Abdullaev, according to whom he and his mother are frightened, and he hides with friends, fearing police persecution. In turn, Abdullaev’s mother Bagdagul Abdullaeva confirmed this information. Nurulla’s mother, Bagdagul Abdullaeva, works as a nurse in a hospital in the city of Derbent, which the police did not forget to visit, where they informed the Chief Doctor that one of his employees’ son is a “Wahhabi.”
Makhachkala resident Ruslan Orudzhev also confirmed Abdullaev’s words. “I am a supplier of halal sausage to Dagestan from Rostov-on-Don. I have clients in Dagestanskie Ogni. As soon as I entered the city, the local police immediately detained me because of my beard. They conducted a search on the spot, then took him to the police department, where they took photographs, took fingerprints, and entered them into the “Wahhabi” database. I am a former policeman, I worked in Rostov-on-Don, but no one stopped me from praying there, no one found fault with my appearance,” said Orudzhev, according to whom, such actions by the security forces of Dagestan only push people to participate in the armed underground .
Another resident of the city of Dagestan Lights, Seyfudin Babaev, was detained by security forces on April 24 along with his son. And, as Seyfudin Babayev himself states, a pistol was planted on him during his arrest, and after long beatings he was forced to say that the pistol belonged to him, so as not to be seriously maimed. Seyfudin Babaev, who is currently under house arrest, contacted the Dagestan regional organization (DRO) “Human Rights Protection” with a complaint that he was being followed by unknown persons in camouflage uniforms.
According to Seyfudin Babaev himself, he first saw these cars on May 2, at about 10.00 near the cafe in Derbent where he works. “From the behavior of the people in the car, he realized that his abduction was possible, and called his relatives by phone, who drove up in large numbers to the cafe and took Seifudin home,” representatives of the human rights organization note. After Seyfudin Babayev’s departure, according to human rights activists, his sister, who worked in the same cafe, was approached by law enforcement officers with various questions about her brother’s lifestyle.
European control
It will be important to recall another case of kidnapping, the case of which until recently was considered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Let us recall that on September 8, 2009, in Derbent, armed people dressed in camouflage blocked the car of Sirazhutdin Shafiev, born in 1971, pulled him out of it, hit him on the head with a baton, pushed him into their car in front of passers-by and took him away. On the same day, Shafiev's relatives informed the authorities about the crime committed against him. Almost immediately, residents of Derbent, among the relatives and acquaintances of the abducted man, held a rally demanding the release of the abducted man, and the wife of the missing man, Khadizhat Shafieva, filed a complaint with the ECHR.
The applicant's interests were represented in the European Court by lawyers from the Memorial Human Rights Center (Moscow) and the European Human Rights Center (EHRAC, London). According to the ruling of the European Court of May 3 this year, the Russian authorities violated Article 2 of the Convention by failing to conduct an effective investigation into the disappearance of Shafiev, and must pay Khadizhat Shafieva 30 thousand euros as compensation for moral damages for inaction in response to the crime committed, the report says Human Rights Center "Memorial". At the same time, the whereabouts of Sirazhutdin Shafiev are still unknown; it is possible that he was killed by kidnappers long ago.
In addition, the relatives of Rashid Ismailov, who was previously kidnapped in May in Makhachkala, held a picket at the republican prosecutor's office the day before, demanding a meeting with the prosecutor of Dagestan Andrei Nazarov. Together with them, the relatives of Timur Danilin, as well as Magomed and Abdulla Murtuzaliev, who were kidnapped in March, came to the prosecutor’s office building.
Let us also note that in recent months in the republic, representatives of the Salafi and Sufi communities have been actively engaged in dialogue to overcome the ideological differences that exist between the jamaats. In order to stimulate dialogue, at the end of March, a parting address from the Mufti of Dagestan to all Muslim residents of the Republic of Dagestan was made public. In his address, the Mufti of Dagestan Akhmad-haji Abdulaev called for the unity of Muslims regardless of dogmatic differences. Abdulaev also condemned the current practice of dividing Muslims into “Sufis” and so-called “Wahhabis.”