Security forces kicked out the relatives of the head of the Chechen “Memorial” from the house

In Chechnya, police kicked out the relatives of the head of the local human rights center Memorial, Oyub Titiev, from the house. They also looked for his son and brother and threatened Titiev’s relatives with trouble. The Memorial Human Rights Center writes about this.

According to the center, on January 10, police broke into Titiev’s house in the village of Kurchaloy. Relatives from the family of his brother, Yakub Titiev, were at home at that time; Oyub Titiev’s wife and children were not at home. Police said they were looking for Yakub and Oyub's twenty-eight-year-old son, Bekhan Titiev. Upon learning that they were now not in Kurchaloi, the police “became furious.” They said that Bekhan and Yakub should appear before the local police commissioner on January 11, and threatened, otherwise, with troubles for their relatives.

Afterwards, the police officers kicked all the women out into the street, locked Titiev’s house and left, taking the keys with them. The police did not explain the reasons for searching for Titiev’s brother and son.

“These reasons are obvious to us: without receiving a “confession” from Oyub, employees of the Kurchaloevsky police department, as often happens in similar cases in the Chechen Republic, will try to use his relatives as “hostages,” says Oleg Orlov, head of the program “Hot spots” of the Human Rights Center “Memorial”.

Orlov also said that operatives of the Kurchaloevsky police department, trying to persuade Titiev to self-incriminate, threatened his relatives with “serious troubles.”

In a conversation with OVD-Info, Orlov added that last night no one was able to get into the house. He explained that by keeping the keys, the security forces are trying to find an additional way to influence Titiev’s relatives, because in order to get into the premises they need to come to the police department.

• The head of the Chechen “Memorial” was detained on the morning of January 9 by people in the uniform of traffic police officers. As a friend of the human rights activist said, he wanted to approach Titiev, but he motioned for him to pass by. Titiev was detained and taken to the Kurchaloevsky District Department of Internal Affairs. Lawyers were not allowed to see him for some time.

That same evening, the human rights activist was accused of drug possession (Article 228 of the Criminal Code). Titiev categorically denies that the bag of drugs allegedly found inside his car belongs to him.