In Dagestan, Salafite runs away from militia but is ready to surrender in exchange for guarantees of law observance

Today in the morning, in central Derbent, in the Agasieva Avenue, unidentified persons in masks tried to detain Mr Bedeev, Rumil Begevich, born in 1982. Bedeev managed to snatch a pistol out of one of the attackers, made several shots and disappeared. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial". The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan has reported that the detention of the suspect was undertaken because of his links with militants.

"A silvery car drove up to him, armed persons in masks jumped out of it, grasped Bedeev and started beating him, including with a pistol handle on his head, and incised his head. Bedeev, having decided that he fell victim to those, who disseminated leaflets with threats to punish supporters of fundamental Islam, snatched out the pistol, made a shot (shots) and disappeared," Ms Sokiryanskaya told Anastasia Kirilenko, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Currently, Bedeev has addressed employees of the HRC "Memorial" for help: he is ready to surrender in exchange for guarantees of observance of the law.

"The 'Memorial' has found an advocate for Bedeev and now prepares an appeal on the incident to Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin," Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya continued.

Bedeev's relatives have already filed an application to Ombudsman Lukin and tried to address a complaint against illegal detention to the Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan, where they were told that "no result is guaranteed."

"Most likely, Bedeev has caused power agencies' interest because he professes the Salafite (the so-called "Wahhabite") religion," lawyer Sokiryanskaya has added. "He could fear for his life, and he thought that he could get on the list of the "death squadron".

The MIA of Dagestan told another version to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent: "At a detention attempt, a suspect of participation in illegal armed formations snatched out a pistol from a militiaman and shot at him." The militiaman died in situ from a gunshot wound.

So far, the Republic's Investigatory Department of the ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office) has no information about the lost militiaman.

According to Bedeev's relatives, the militiaman was killed by his colleague as a result of careless use of firearm. This was reported by Oleg Ionov, another "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.