22:36, 14 November 2006

Chechen authorities refute Human Rights Watch's information on tortures in the Republic

The authorities of Chechnya assert that the Human Rights Watch International Organization, which published yesterday a large-scale report on tortures in Chechnya, has essentially exaggerated the scale of the problem. Some state servants have even declared that there were no tortures at all. "Should there be torture facts, we'd talk on the problem ourselves, the detainees' relatives would talk about it," Ziyad Sabsabi, vice-premier of Chechnya stated.

However, Valery Kuznetsov, Chechnya Prosecutor, told the "Commersant" that "there are cases when members of power structures are applying illegal methods in the process of interrogation."

In its report, the Human Rights Watch has documented 82 cases of using tortures and provided detailed descriptions "of at least ten illegal custodies - private houses controlled by state servants loyal to Mr. Kadyrov."