Former Guantanamo Inmates Kidnapped

A PRIMA report gives details of the kidnapping of former Guantanamo inmates by police from Tatarstan:

RUSSIA, Moscow. On 9 September former Guantanamo inmates Airat Vakhitov and Rustam Akhmyarov revealed that they had been detained by 2 policemen from Tatarstan on 27 August. The policemen burst into the flat of the President of the Russian Islamic Committee Geidar Dzhemal and, without presenting any form of identification, handcuffed Vakhitov and Akhmyarov – who were present at the time – and took them away.

Airat Vakhitov and Rustam Akhmyarov, appearing at a press conference at the offices of the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, described how police had first taken them to Sheremetevo airport – however no tickets were available on flights to Kazan. Then they were taken to Domodedovo airport and from there were flown to Kazan the capital of Tatarstan.

There, accompanied by members of the Special Rapid Response Branch, they were taken to the Department for the Fight against Organised Crime before being placed in temporary remand cells. Following this Vakhitov and Akhmyarov were taken to Haberezhnye Chelny, where two days following their arrest a court in their absence placed them in custody on charges of terrorism.

Journalists located Airat Vakhitov and Rustam Akhmyarov following which the organisation Amnesty International organised a campaign to provide immediate help. Sergei Nikitin, the head of the Moscow branch of the organisation, said that a list of officials involved in the detention of Vakhitov and Akhmyarov with their addresses had been sent out to 75 thousand activists from the organisation in various countries in order to invite questions. The information was also placed on Amnesty International’s internet site. According to Nikitin this lead to an international scandal.

Airat Vakhitov and Rustam Akhyarov were freed on the morning of 2 September. Before being released an investigator from the prosecutor’s office visited them and asked them not to talk about what had happened. According to the investigator the order to detain the men came from a general in the Federal Security Service (FSB) and a general in the Interior Ministry.

The President of the Russian Islamic Committee Gaidar Dzhemal said that according to information in his possession the decision to kidnap Bakhitov and Akhmyarov was taken by Tatarstani officials as result of meetings with members of the Interior Ministry and the FSB during the visit of Vladimir Putin to Kazan in August.

Airat Vakhitov confirmed that according to a US military intelligence investigator he had been freed from Guantanamo and sent to Russia on specific conditions namely that Vakhitov would be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and that the CIA and FBI would have round-the-clock access to him. Vakhitov announced that an investigator from the General Prosecutor’s office had confirmed what the American officer had said.

Participants in the press conference announced that Amnesty International in conjunction with the English human rights organisation Justice in Exile are preparing to create a Russian fund for Guantanamo prisoners to provide them with legal and humanitarian aid.

News Agency PRIMA-News [2005-09-09-Rus-22]

(via chechnya-sl)