Russia: security forces in Ingushetia on trial for torture

The 45-year-old former head of the Centre for Combating Extremism, Timur Khamkhoev, and six others are on trial for abusing detainees.

From next week onwards the trial will take place on a daily basis and promises to be very interesting. Two days before it began, an attempt was made on the life of the head prosecutor of the case. At dawn, unidentified individuals threw a grenade into his courtyard. A guard was heavily wounded but the prosecutor was not injured.

Russia’s criminal code has no definition for torture, which is why the main article under which the accusation has been put forward is No. 286: “Abuse of Authority With the Use of Violence”.

Khamkhoev was arrested in December 2017 for extortion. Investigators say that he and an employee of the Ingushetia FSB, Mustafa Tsoroev, extorted a million roubles from Azerbaijani businessman Amal Nazarov.

Nazarov himself wrote a statement to the FSB in which he enthusiastically requested that they investigate the case. Over the course of the investigation, cases of torture were uncovered. Of note was the case of 50-year-old Magomed Doliev.

On 11 June 2016, unidentified individuals robbed a bank in the Ingush city of Sunzha. Doliev’s wife, Marem, was working in the bank and was called in by the city police department for questioning.

“They put a black bag over my head and taped it up completely, they left me a little slit for air,” Marem said regarding the interrogation.

“There they first beat me and afterwards took me to the Centre for Combating Extremism. Then they put me on a chair and tied my hands. They beat me over the head with something heavy. They put wires on my fingers and gave me electric shocks, they shocked me in the stomach as well. They demanded that I confess to the robbery.”

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