Open Letter

To: Head of the North Caucasus Department of the Prosecutor General's
Office, Yessentuki Via facsimile + 7(8653) 460 700

Copy: Vladimir Ustinov, Prosecutor General of the RF
Via facsimile +7(095) 921-41-86
Vladimir Lukin, Ombudsman of the RF
Via facsimile +7(095) 207-76-30
Ella Pamfilova, Chair of the Human Rights Council under the President of the RF
Via facsimile +7 (095) 206-48-55

OPEN LETTER

Vienna, 2 June 2005

Dear Prosecutor,

I am writing to you on behalf of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) regarding two cases:

· the unlawful detention and the death of Adam Gorchhanov (born 1968), resident of the Ingush village Plievo, Gorchhanova street #6, on 23 May 2005. Gorchhanov died on the 30 May, after having been in the temporary isolator (IVD) in Vladikavkaz, and then allegedly in the building of the Russian Administration for Combating Organized Crime (RUBOP) in Vladikavkaz.His body evidences traces of torture.

· the unlawful detention of Ibragim Dzaurov (born in 1979), resident of Nasyr-Kort, Sovietskaya Street 63, Nazran, Ingushetia, who was abducted from his house on 27 May 2005. There are grounds to believe that he is held in Vladikavkaz.

Details:

According to his relatives, early in the morning of 23 May 2005, several cars (including a UAZ, a white Gazelle-minibus, and an armored troop-carrier) approached the house of Adam Gorchhanov, and more than forty armed and masked persons of an unknown power structure entered the house. Not showing any documents, they began to search the house, and to beat Adam Gorchhanov and his brother Bashir Gorchhanov (born 1970). They filmed everything with a video-camera, seized two photo albums and various documents, including the passports of the two men. They claimed to have
found two guns in the house, but provided no witnesses to confirm that weapons were found, as would have been the lawful procedure.

On that same day, the Gorchhanov family made inquiries regarding the abduction of Adam Gorchhanov to the republican and regional Offices of Public Prosecutor, Ingush branch of FSB, and also to Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Ustinov, the head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev, and the Ingush deputy to the State Duma Bashir Kodzoev.

On 25 May, his family managed to find out via informal channels, that Adam Gorchhanov had been taken to one of the temporary isolators (IVS) of Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia). On 28 May, they learned, that Adam Gorchhanov was in the reanimation section of the Republican Hospital of Vladikavkaz in a very grave condition (he was in a coma). Svetlana Gannushkina, human rights activist and member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, called the hospital, and the senior doctor in the emergency ward confirmed that Gorchhanov was there with a serious skull injury. A policeman informed the family that Gorchhanov had allegedly been delivered to the hospital from the RUBOP of Vladikavkaz, where – again allegedly – he had jumped from the fourth floor. However, people who saw him in the hospital confirmed that Gorchhanov had no broken bones but many bruises and haematomas that were most likely the consequences of severe beatings.

On 30 May Adam Gorchhanov died in the hospital. His relatives who saw the body maintain that it bears numerous marks of violent treatment.

*******

On 27 May, the inhabitant of Nasyr-Kort, Sovietskaya Street 63, Nazran, Ibragim Dzaurov, was abducted from his house. It is believed that he is held in Vladikavkaz, but his family has not yet received a notification of his detention.

According to his relatives, on the evening of 27 May, a large group of soldiers and policemen approached their house in three armored troop-carriers, three Gazelle micro-buses, one UAZ (Tabletka) and a VAZ-21099. Without a search warrant, the armed men ordered that all inhabitants of the house stand against the wall. They broke some furniture in the house and stole 5,000 roubles and a mobile phone. The policemen took photos of all the tenants of the house and took some photos from their photo album. At the end of the search, they forced Ibragim Dzaurov into one of their cars and left with him in an unknown direction.

According to his father, Ibragim had been abducted once before. On 25 December 2004, he was unlawfully detained in broad daylight at the market “Markhab”, where he worked at the currency exchange counter. The abduction was presumably perpetrated by the Ingush branch of FSB. At that time, Ibragim’s relatives immediately contacted the police and asked them to inquire at the local FSB. The FSB answered that Dzaurov was not with them. Two days later, on 27 December, he was thrown out from a car near
Assinovskaya (Chechen Republic, close to the Ingushetian border). He had been severely beaten, and told his relatives that his abductors had put a black plastic bag over his head, and he therefore did not know where they had taken him. He had been held in a cellar the entire time, and was interrogated and severely beaten (hung by his feet and hands and beaten with an iron square). They demanded that he identify unknown persons in a photo, and repeatedly asked whether he participated in events on 21-22 June. Additionally, his abductors stole 1.000$ from him, which he was carrying when he was abducted. Because he was frightened, Ibragim Dzaurov did not contact law enforcement bodies about what had happened to him and from then until the date of his second abduction – 27 May 2005 -- stayed at home most of the time.

******

We appeal to you to conduct a thorough investigation into the reasons for the death of Adam Gorchhanov. In particular the evidence that he died due to torture should be considered, and the perpetrators should be identified and duly brought to justice. Further, the circumstances of the unlawful detention of Adam Gorchhanov should be clarified.

We appeal to you to investigate the fate and whereabouts of Ibragim Dzaurov and either to ensure that he is released immediately by those who hold them, or to provide a legal arrest warrant stating the reasons for his detention, which should be communicated to his family members.

We ask you to inform us about developments in this case.

Sincerely,

Dr. Aaron Rhodes (Executive Director)

cc OSCE Delegations
Council of Europe, Mr. Rudolf Bindig, Chechnya-Rapporteur for the PACE
Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights; Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles,
Commissioned for Human Rights of the Council of Europe
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Mr. Stephen J. Toope, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
National Helsinki Committees

__________________________________________
Joachim Frank, Project Coordinator
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Wickenburggasse 14/7
A-1080 Vienna
Tel. +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 22
Fax: +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 50
Web: http://www.ihf-hr.org
______________________________________