Staraia Sunzha murderers detained

Chechnya's military commandant's office has detained three military men involved in killing Staraia Sunzha, Grozny district, residents. "Three military men suspected of committing this crime have been detained and they have already confessed to their guilt," a representative of the military commandant's office of the United Group of Troops in the North Caucasus told Interfax.

Imran Vagapov, chief federal inspector of the South federal district for the Chechen Republic, said that the Defence Ministry servicemen guilty of killing civilians in Staraia Sunzha would be held accountable in compliance with the law. "Measures taken by law enforcement agencies have made it possible to identify the military men who shot dead the civilians within less than 24 hours," Mr Vagapov remarked.

"The prosecutor's office has opened a criminal case in connection with this fact; those guilty are known, they have been detained and are giving evidence," said Mr Vagapov. "Everything necessary will be done for this criminal case to have a trial perspective," he added.

"The incident has caused great public response. It is hard to explain to people actions of the military men who were drunk and shot the people dead without any reasons," the federal inspector for Chechnya noted.

"A group of around 10 people dressed in camouflage uniforms and armed with special weapons shot three people on the outskirts of Staraia Sunzha, Grozny district, late on 16 November: Yusup Usmanov, Hussein Akhmadov, and Jambulat Dushayev. An eyewitness, resident in Staraia Sunzha, who was lucky to survive in spite of sustaining a wound, claims that the attackers were federal servicemen and that they went towards the military base in Khankala. The investigators who examined the scene are of the same opinion. The tracks of the murderers really lead towards the Russian military base," a source in Chechnya's Internal Affairs Ministry told Caucasian Knot's correspondent. According to the source, the attackers first cruelly beat Messrs Usmanov, Akhmadov, and Dushayev, after which they made the victims lie down and killed them shooting in their heads.

The military men next went away in the direction of the Russian military base in Khankala which is the main base of the Russian troops in Chechnya where the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Group is situated, as well as a hospital, the military prosecutor's office, Federal Security Service agencies and other federal structures.