A pensioner from Sochi asks for the release of a Chechen against whom a case of robbery has been fabricated

A pensioner from Sochi, Artur Zadelnikov, who became a victim of a robber, sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, asking them to take action in the case of his robbery. According to the man, an innocent young Chechen is in jail for committing this crime, but the real robber is at large; At the same time, the Sochi police, knowing this, refuse to take any measures and fabricate evidence. As Zadelnikov told the Caucasian Knot, on the night of December 10 last year he was driving home to the Imereti Lowland in his car. At one of the bus stops, he saw a young man catching an “attempt” and agreed to give him a ride. Near the house that a travel companion needed, the pensioner's car got stuck in a mud hole. “It was very dark. This place is not lit. The guy helped me push the car out of the mud over the hill, and he continued on foot. When he left, I got out of the car to see if the car had been damaged on the trunk side by hitting the bump. When I was already approaching the driver’s door, someone very powerful, about a hundred kilograms, ran into me from behind and began to choke me with his hand, then threw me to the ground,” recalls the pensioner. According to him, the attacker spoke with a Caucasian accent and demanded money. When the pensioner began to lose consciousness, the criminal began to strangle him, turning out his pockets. Taking his mobile phone, documents and 250 rubles, the man abandoned Zadelnikov on the road and disappeared. After the attack, the pensioner went to the police station in Blinovo. After some time, the police reported that the criminal had been detained and asked Zadelnikov to come to the Adler police station. According to Zadelnikov, there the police showed him a photograph of a young man riding in the car with him and told him that it was he who had been detained. “I immediately said that it was not him, since he is thin. He has small hands, a completely different voice, and in general, if he wanted to rob me, he would not have helped me push the car out of the mud pit. He’s a modest guy and doesn’t look like a robber,” says the victim. After the interrogation, the pensioner signed the protocol issued by the Adler police department officer without reading it. As it turned out later, the protocol was fabricated - it stated that Zadelnikov identified 20-year-old Khavazh Temirsultanov, who was traveling with him in the car, as the robber. Also, the victim, without reading the text itself, signed a statement that he feared for his life and refused to attend the trial. “I’m an elderly man, I don’t see well, I’m 75 years old. It’s easy to deceive me,” says Zadelnikov. “I haven’t been able to sleep peacefully for almost a month. There is a young guy in prison who is not guilty of anything. A real bandit is on the loose,” he adds. According to the pensioner, the Adler police did not respond to his complaints. On January 20, Zadelnikov wrote a letter in which he outlined all the circumstances of what happened, addressed to the Russian president and head of Chechnya. Meanwhile, on December 15, the Adler District Court chose a preventive measure against Temirsultanov in the form of detention until February 10, 2015. As Chechen translator Movldy Makaev, who was present at the hearing, told the Caucasian Knot, there were clear signs of beatings on the defendant’s face: “his lips were broken, his front tooth was half knocked out, there were rope marks on his neck.” The accused himself does not admit his guilt.