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December 5, 2005
Russia: Allegations of Police Torturing Suspected Islamists
Today, Mosnews carries the story of a file of photographs being distributed by a lawyer, Ms Alexandra Zernova.
Ms Zernova and other lawyers acting for people detained following the October 13 Nalchik uprising in Kabardino-Balkaria in the Caucasus, on Sunday were giving out photographs of suspects showing injuries consistent with beatings.
Zernova is lawyer for former Guantanamo prisoner Rasul Kudayev (pictured), who was also arrested in Nalchik. She states that the photograph of his injuries, which he received from prosecutors, made it hard to recognise him.
Kudayev's mother was interrogated by prosecutors after she sent a report to Amnesty International about her son's treatment.
Kudayev had been originally caught in Afghanistan and detained as an enemy combatant and held in Guantanamo. He was handed over to Russia in March, 2004. He was kidnapped in the city of Nalchik in August, and released a few days later. He was arrested a few days after the Nalchik uprising.
More than a hundred people died in the Nalchik uprising, when groups of armed Islamists attempted to besiege public buildings.
When three attorneys representing suspects complained about the behaviour of the prosecutors, they were suspended from cases. One of the lawyers, Larissa Dorogova, spoke on Echo Moscow radio last week about how detainees were undergoing "real tyranny".
She claims that the beatings happen with the prosecutor's office being aware of them. "The arrested people are questioned by investigators from the Southern Federal District department of the Prosecutor General's Office. They can see what condition the detainees are in but do nothing about it," she said.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 5, 2005 10:37 AM
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