Police abuse may be serving as cover

Three local residents were abducted by armed people from their own homes in Achkhoi-Martan, Chechnya, at about 6:20 a.m. this morning. The district prosecutor's office and the District Division of Internal Affairs have refused to accept statements from the abducted people's relatives, however, according to a press release of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society received by Caucasian Knot.

The abductions were carried out by a group of 16 people in camouflage uniforms, armed with automatic weapons and driving four vehicles. All the abductions were committed in houses in Polezhayev Lane. Ahmed Khaitayev, b. 1972, and Mamed Khaitayev, b. 1978, were abducted from house No 3. The former serves with the district military commandant's office and the latter is a builder. Alvi Takhayev, b. 1972, a builder too, was abducted from house No 16.

On the same day, the abducted men's relatives filed statements to the Achkhoi-Martan District Division of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office of the Achkhoi-Martan district and Sunzhenskaya district in which they set out the circumstances of the abductions and gave a description of the abductors. However, both law enforcement agencies refused to accept the statements. The relatives assume that the police and prosecutor's office know the names of the abductors and the whereabouts of the abducted men. They also think that the disappearings were enforced by representatives of Chechnya's law enforcement agencies.