Torture against the committee

How the "consolidated mobile group" of human rights activists in Chechnya works

In early August 2015, the “committee against torture” was self -destructed in Russia - one of the main organizations in the country involved in public investigations. Instead of this structure recognized by a “foreign agent”, a new one with a similar name is created - the “Committee to prevent torture”; She will be about the same. The “Consolidated Mobile Group” will continue to work - a division of the “Committee” working in Chechnya: human rights activists investigate cases related to “murders of honor”, ​​abductions and torture. The mobile group did not have a relationship with the leadership of Chechnya from the very beginning, but especially worsened in 2014-their office was first burned, then defeated. Daniil Turovsky watched the special correspondent of Medusa at the work of the “Consolidated Mobile Group” in Chechnya.

A girl of about four is worn around the room, smiles, hugs a plush bear, which is five times more than her, then runs away to the corridor - and returns back to her fatherly strict boots, then in pink spaces, then in mother -in -law red red shoes. Adults in the room are not up to her. The sofa settled the employees of the “Consolidated Mobile Group” (SMG) Dmitry Kazakov and Albina Mudarisova, a woman - Louise Akhmedova sits next to the chair, she, expressed in the language of the SMG, “The applicant”. Louise looks around every person in the room.

Like every applicant, Louise begins from afar - he asks for a start how the human rights activists are doing, how they now work without an office (he burned out as a result of arson in December 2014). To the essence of the conversation, it only passes in about fifteen minutes: Louise Akhmedova asks her son to take her son abroad.

Alikhan Akhmedov began to problems in 2007. Then he worked as an investigator in a group to disclose especially serious crimes. In November 2007, a loud murder of the policeman and “Kadyrovts” Ruslan Khataev took place in Grozny. Among the suspects was the employee of the Grozny riot police, Said-Emin Mazaev. Alikhan Akhmedov interrogated him, after which he searched his house. The next evening, according to SMG, Akhmedov drank coffee after a shift in a cafe, when eight riot police with weapons burst inside, they shot several times to the floor. By order of Alikhan Tsakaev, the head of riot police and classmate Kadyrov, Akhmedova was taken to the base of the special forces in the trunk of the car.

The occurring on the basis is described in Akhmedov’s testimony for the SMG case: “They tied their arms behind their backs and put a rag in their mouths. Then the same rope was thrown over the tree branch and began to tighten the rope so that I remained in a suspended position. After that, all OMON employees began to beat me. They were beaten in shifts, strokes were struck with their hands and feet on the body and head. The beating lasted about three hours. Throughout all time, I lost consciousness for about three or four times, I was doused from a bucket with cold water, bringing me to life. During the beating, one of the OMON employees was twice extinguished on my neck of a cigarette. ”

Then Alikhan Akhmedov was fired from the police, and he himself was convicted that he allegedly tortured a riot police. After leaving the imprisonment, he wrote a statement to the prosecutor’s office, a criminal case was instituted, but the UK on Chechnya could not establish the perpetrators.

Akhmedov turned to the SMG only in 2011, and since then he constantly feels the attention of law enforcement agencies. The Investigative Committee does not search for Akhmedov who tried; Despite the efforts of the SMG lawyers, investigators regularly issued and continue to make decisions on the suspension of production (in recent years, more than ten have been issued). After the film “Family” was released (shot “Open Russia” by Mikhail Khodorkovsky), in which Alikhan talked about torture, Louise was fired from work.

“Can I take it to France? - asks Louise. -I taught French for 20 years, somehow we can handle it? How? Do not take it out? Well, make us at least visas so that we give up on the border. I can’t get so - worry every time, every day for him. Tell yourself. "

Alikhan sits in the corner of the room, picking in a mobile phone. “Well ...” he begins. “Tell me how it was, and not as I told me. He told me at first that he hit the car! ” - the woman stands.

And Alikhan says: he walked at the end of June 2015 home late in the evening. At the entrance I saw a black car without numbers, but still decided to go into the porch. Near the elevator he was caught up with three people and tried to take him into the street by force. He resisted, received a blow to his nose with a solid object. A woman ran out of the apartment, raised a scream, the attackers left the entrance. Both Alikhan and his mother believe that this will not end: the next time he will not only hit his nose, but will be taken away - and no one will find him anymore.

Human rights activist Dmitry Kazakov asks if they have relatives in other regions of Russia. Louise shakes her head. Cossacks say: it is real to help with a visa, take out to live somewhere-it is difficult, the SMG does not have such resources.

SMG employees promise to do something and leave. The woman afterwards tells them: “Well, try, yes, please? I am at any time available by phone. "

* * *

To achieve an investigation of cases in which the Chechen security officials are involved, to bring them to justice extremely rarely. The work of the SMG consists, rather, in fixing violations and pushing investigators to work, but most importantly - in psychological assistance to applicants; They must give hope that justice can still be achieved.

The “Consolidated Mobile Group” of the “Committee against torture” began to operate in Chechnya in 2009 - after the murder of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who worked in the Memorial. Until 2009, the lawyers of the “Committee against torture” were constantly in the republic, but the murder of Estemirova made it obvious that in Chechnya it was “extremely dangerous”. In order to lower the danger, they decided to work in shit: once a month a new team comes to Grozny - three people from different regional branches of the Committee, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg and others. The first shift in the SMG went to Grozny on November 30, 2009.

The head of the SMG, the head of the “Committee against torture”, Igor Kalyapin described this: “We are trying to force the investigation authorities to properly investigate crimes committed by police and other security forces”, to make an “situation in the Chechen Republic is even a little calmer - so that the people who live there have hope for justice” ( interviews of Igor Kalyapin, “Meduza” Ilya Azaru, read here ).

At first, there were many rumors about the SMG: maybe the FSB covers them? Or is it a special group of President Dmitry Medvedev, who collects incriminating evidence for Kadyrov, and therefore to Putin? These rumors, however, quickly scattered. Now the leadership of Chechnya unequivocally considers human rights activists to the "enemies of Russia." “These guys hate the Chechen people. They came here to make money, ”said Ramzan Kadyrov in 2012.

In 2013, the SMG received a human rights prize for work in Chechnya Martin Annals (Nobel Prize for human rights activists). In his speech at the award of the award, Kalyapin said that the “main characters” are not at all the lawyers of the SMG, but the victims of torture, relatives of people who were missing, killed. “Deadly risking, [they] were not afraid to contact us, participated in investigations, gave testimonies, participated in litigation. These people risked with us and risked more than us, ”said Igor Kalyapin.

With their activities, the group was annoyed by the leadership of the republic, which has repeatedly stated that human rights activists in Chechnya were not needed. Finally, relations between the authorities and the committee deteriorated in 2014.

In December 2014, the militants attacked the Grozny for the first time in a long time. In the Chechen capital, a counter -terrorist operation was announced, some of the militants were destroyed in the Press House, others at school near Putin Avenue. 14 police officers were killed. The next day, Kadyrov said that "the families of the militants will be immediately expelled outside Chechnya without the right to return, and [their] houses are demolished with the foundation."

The head of the “Committee against torture” Igor Kalyapin in response said that the militants' relatives could only be punished if the court establishes their participation in a perfect crime. Three days later, four houses, where the alleged relatives of the militants lived, were burned by unknown people. Meanwhile, Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on his Instagram: “A certain Kalyapin defended the bandits and their relatives. In Chechnya, I am engaged in the protection of human rights. ”

A week later, the office of the mobile group in Grozny burned out - a five -minute walk from Putin Avenue and the city center. A photograph is known in which the lawyer SMG Sergey Babinets stands on the ashes and holds in his hands a bonus, which they were awarded in 2013.

The group members lived in a hotel for some time, but continued to work. In connection with the arson of the office, a criminal case was opened, but after six months the investigation did not find versions and suspects.

The burned office was repaired over time. However, on June 3, 2015 he was again attacked. First, under the windows of the SMG, a rally “against the politicization of human rights activity” was walking, about 300 people participated in it. During the rally, some people burst into the office, cutting the door with a grinder. Employees of the SMG managed to leave the premises. Breeding citizens staged a pogrom and carried away most of the documents. At the same time on the street with iron rods, the SMG car was broken. The office was smashed for two hours, while the police, who in Grozny literally on every corner did not appear.

SMG had to buy and drive a new car to Chechnya - an ordinary unarous jeep. Each such car has a special security system that monitors the group’s movements and deviations from the due route. In addition, SMG employees fulfill some simple safety rules - say, they respond at the appointed time on duty (the conversation is usually short: “Everything is fine with us, before the connection”), they never go out into the street one at a time.

The landlord, whose SMG was renting an office, refused to rent the premises again. It was not possible to find a new office - no one wants to contact the enemies of Kadyrov in Chechnya. In the end, the SMG had to take advantage of the only option - to call into the apartment of Natalia Estemirova, who has been handed over to her daughter since 2009.

This apartment is located on the 10th floor in a new building in the working area of ​​Grozny. The elevator in this house never worked, so for the office of human rights activists, who are often the applicants, this is the most inappropriate place: the applicants are most often elderly people who are almost beyond its strength to get so high.

* * *

In August duty of 2015, only two lawyers arrived in Grozny. There is no more - there are no new applicants, the work goes on old cases, and mostly written: it seems to be appealed to the refusal to terminate the proceedings or receive such refusal. Therefore, the daily work of the SMG is associated with post offices.

Lawyer Dmitry Kazakov in Grozny for the ninth time, he from the Nizhny Novgorod “Committee”, in recent months has been engaged in documents regarding the recognition of the organization of the “foreign agent” and its liquidation (instead of the “Committee against torture”, a “Committee to prevent torture” is created, he will work without foreign financing).

"Is it difficult to work here?" - I ask Kazakov when we leave the court. “It's hard to work,” he replies. - Here they kidnapped a man from home. You come to your neighbors. They say: yes, yes, they saw, heard. Then you ask to confirm on paper, and that's it: "Well, why?" But everyone knows each other and lived in a neighborly one. ”

The second lawyer - Albina Mudarisova from Orenburg - was only once in Chechnya. Girls in the "Committee" is generally rare. Before she was taken to a human rights organization, they warned about danger several times.

Before the Committee, she received an economic education and worked in a leading position in a construction company. A few years ago she was sent on a business trip-to build a boarding house in the Far North, "where only the district police officer was from power." Once this district police officer came to her and asked: "Well, who is this time this time?" Albina did not understand what it was about. It turned out that he started minor affairs (hooliganism, drinking alcohol in public places) for random builders; This was required by the leadership.

Returning home, Albina entered the legal. Soon, one of the classmates said that he had found a job in the local “committee against torture”, and called it with him. She passed the internship at the end of 2013, and from 2014 she began to work as a full-time lawyer. This time she arrived in Chechnya with a large suitcase with a margin of closed dresses - in Grozny they looked askance at women in open clothes.

Paper work takes a lot of time and effort from members of the mobile group, but even more time and effort has to be spent on the courts.

On one of the August days of 2015, the Cossacks and Mudarisov were sent to the Supreme Court (in the same building-the Slastena cafe) to the process of Chechnya Ministry of Internal Affairs against the “committee” and Murad Amriev (athlete; in 2013 he was tortured with electric shock and hung up in the building of the Office of the Grozny Ministry of Internal Affairs). The security forces filed a lawsuit to protect honor and dignity in December 2014.

There is no electricity in the court (in Grozny - a common thing), the air conditioner does not work, the court secretary is flattered by a folder with a criminal case. At the meeting, the judge asks the original power of attorney to provide Amriev. “The original burned down,” says Judge Amriev.

However, the meeting still had to be postponed: the representatives of the plaintiff - the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya did not appear. Human rights activists say that this occurs periodically - the authorities in this way delay the case.

* * *

During the December fire, almost all the things that the SMG worked on were burned in the office. The large part was restored by electronic copies, but the originals of the testimony and power of attorney from the applicants irrevocably disappeared.

Restored documents lie in a secret apartment outside of Chechnya. In them - among other things, you can find investigations about abductions during special operations to capture militants, as well as torture for groaning confession.

So, in April 2012, on the outskirts of the village of Assinovskaya, an explosion crashed next to the police station. A few hours later, police broke into three houses. They took one young man from each house and took them to the Sunzhensk District Department of Internal Affairs. All three will then tell the relatives that they were under torture (fists, stamping, strangling with a package, breaking their fingers on their feet) had to be stipulated. They received terms from seven to nine years for participating in illegal armed formation, illegal acquisition and storage of explosive devices and preparing a terrorist attack.

Among the cases there are several crimes on “murders of honor” (in Islamic culture it happens that relatives thus protect the “honor of the family”: girls are killed for premarital sex, treason; in the most radical families - even for drinking alcohol or candid clothes). According to the study of the Memorial , in recent years, such murders began to occur in Chechnya more often: “Men dealt with their relatives even for very minor deviations from the“ norms of behavior of the Chechen girl ... In recent years, the decision is made not on the basis of tradition, but depends on the arbitrariness of relatives who occupy a high position. ”

For example, May 2013 disappeared the sisters of the Satsita and Zargan Aidamirov. They lived and worked on a car wash, in one day they found traces of blood and sleeves. At the scene, the team of operatives met with a man who introduced himself as a “ranger” (in Chechnya, security forces - former militants - often use old callsigns). Witnesses said what he said on the phone: "This is our work, and they know about it upstairs." The girls were not found.

In July 2013, Khadizhat Elimkhanov was pushed in the center of Grozny into a car. Mother Khadizhat immediately went to the place of abduction, in the next store there was a video of the abduction. In the frame is a silver car from which two men crawl out. One of them is in black military uniform with a holster for a pistol on the belt. The men approached the boorish from the back, and one of them struck the butt of the girl’s head with the butt of the girl. She fell. The men began to kick her, after which they dragged her to the car. She literally pushed her legs into the car. The passers -by were indifferently watching what was happening. The girl was not found.

None of these cases of the “consolidated mobile group” ended in the capture of criminals.

Daniil Turovsky

Terrible, Chechnya