Complaint about staged video with the oath to IS is a unique case for Dagestan

The application of residents of Buynaksk that law enforcers had forced them to record an oath to the leader of the "Islamic State" (IS), a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, is a unique phenomenon for Dagestan, Sirazhutdin Datsiev, a rights defender, and Sapiyat Magomedova, an advocate, have noted. The accusation of an attempt to leave for Syria was lifted from the residents.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in November 2018, Samat Tatarkhanov and Daniyal Zagirov, residents of Buynaksk, arrested on charges of storing weapons, complained that they had been tortured with electric current. According to their story, they were taken to the forest and, at submachine gunpoint, forced to read the oath to the IS leader to the video camera. Other two 17-year-olds boys were placed in a colony. Later, all the four refused from their testimonies.

In the opinion of Sirazhutdin Datsiev, the head of the Dagestani branch of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", if it is proved that the video with the oath was recorded under pressure, there will be more such complaints about law enforcers' actions.

"Of course, complaints about law enforcers' actions arrived earlier; but there have not yet been any complaints that law enforcers forced people to take oath to the IS," said Sapiyat Magomedova, a lawyer.