EDITORIAL

Everything that you read below is documented by the law enforcement and judicial authorities of the Russian Federation, as well as directly confirmed by open, non-anonymous eyewitness accounts of the events described.

In April 2017, Novaya Gazeta handed over to the Investigative Committee of Russia a list of 30 killed residents of Chechnya. 27 people from this list were detained in December 2016 and in January 2017 during police special operations along with dozens of other residents of Chechnya (we can documentarily confirm the detention of at least 109 people).

At the end of January 2017, these 27 Chechens were executed on the territory of the Akhmat Kadyrov Patrol and Guards Regiment (hereinafter – the Kadyrov Regiment): two were shot, the rest were strangled.

Three more from the “Novaya” list were detained, subjected to terrible torture and died as a result of a mass campaign organized in Chechnya at the end of February 2017 against the local LGBT community. A little later, we passed on to the Investigative Committee the data of another – the fourth – a man who was abducted and then killed in Chechnya on suspicion of homosexual orientation.

The Investigative Committee of Russia conducted a pre-investigation check on our complaint about the murder of 31 residents of Chechnya for almost a year. Investigators confirmed the deaths of four people. They allegedly found two people from the “Novaya” list alive – and even took explanations from them. Moreover, these people were shown to Tatyana Nikolaevna Moskalkova, the human rights ombudsman under the President of the Russian Federation, during her trip to Chechnya as part of checking the information of Novaya Gazeta. But in fact, they were the brothers of the detained and executed in January 2017 Mokhma Muskiev and Shamkhan Yusupov – Umar Turpilaylovich Turkoev and Mansur Shaikhovich Yusupov. They were forced to make this lie, which is easy to expose (for example, by watching a video with the participation of these people, which during the meeting was prudently made by Tatyana Moskalkova’s assistant, and comparing it with the lifetime photographs of Mokhma Muskiev and Shamkhan Yusupov). Three more from our list, according to the version of the Investigative Committee, are missing.

Criminal cases were opened against the remaining 18 people in the summer and fall of 2017, and all 18 were put on the international wanted list on charges of participation in illegal armed terrorist groups in the Syrian Arab Republic. After that, in March 2018, the The Investigative Committee of Russia issued a final refusal to initiate a criminal case at the request of Novaya Gazeta and never returned to the topic of mass extrajudicial killings in Chechnya.

We continued our investigation. Together with the human rights center „Memorial“ and the NGO „Pravovaya Initiativa“ (both organizations are included in the list of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice), the movement „Russian LGBT Network“, the public association „Committee Against Torture“ and a brilliant team of lawyers, we managed to convince the residents of Chechnya who witnessed illegal of detentions, torture and extrajudicial executions openly testify about this.

In addition, in our investigation, for the first time, the testimony of a witness „from the other side“ – an employee  Kadyrov regiment, who, he said, was directly involved in counterterrorism operations in December and January 2017, detained people, guarded them in a „secret prison“ and witnessed the execution of at least 13 of the 27 people on our list.

This witness contacted Novaya Gazeta back in 2017. He agreed to be interviewed and notarized his testimony for the Investigative Committee of Russia, not hiding his name and position. And for him this decision was a matter of principle. He asked for only one thing – to protect his family, he himself was ready to stay in Russia to cooperate with the investigation.

But we decided to take the whole family out of the country, including the witness himself. The Investigative Committee of Russia has never granted a single petition for state protection even for the direct victims of the Chechen security forces.

It would be quite naive to hope that the Russian state will protect a witness who, from the point of view of the state, is a real traitor.

We were able to take this man and his family out of Russia only recently – largely thanks to the help of colleagues from international human rights organizations. It turned out to be terribly difficult. There are many countries in the world that condemn human rights violations in Chechnya. But there are almost no people who are ready to provide state protection to former employees of the Chechen power structures in response to public testimony about crimes in which they not only acted as witnesses, but also took part.

While the witness remained in Russia, for security reasons we could not publish his testimony. But over the years, we have thoroughly checked his story and were able to confirm it. Including or even in the first place – the testimony of the residents of Chechnya themselves, detained and held on the territory of the Kadyrov Regiment in January 2017. They identified this employee. And we, in turn, clarified a very important ethical point for us: despite the fact that the witness carried out unlawful orders (namely, he took part in arrests and guarded detainees in illegal places of detention), he did not participate in torture.

Moreover, he was one of the few members of the regiment who showed sympathy for the detainees. That is why he remembered many of them, and he remembered precisely the human details that could be recognized only through confidential communication.

Today we are publishing the first part of our investigation – the result of many years of painstaking joint work. Each fact in this text is officially confirmed: by departmental documents, sentences that have entered into force, materials of criminal cases, investigative checks of reports of a crime, protocols of trials. All eyewitness accounts of the described events are documented in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. All these people have agreed to the public use of their personal data and testimony.

Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia tablets.

In the summer of 2017, without waiting for the initiation of a criminal case on the fact of the mass extrajudicial execution from the Investigative Committee, Novaya Gazeta published an article “It was an execution”. In it, we provided a list of 27 Chechens killed in January 2017. After the publication of this publication, an unknown person sent a table to the e-mail of the Novaya Gazeta journalist, which contained photographic and personal data of 67 residents of Chechnya detained in January 2017, as well as information on the results of operational search activities. A person “from the street” could not compile such a table.

Again, we do not know the name of the person who sent us the table, but from the correspondence with him it became obvious that this was either an agent or a direct employee of the FSB in the Chechen Republic. This person made it clear that the leadership of the FSB in the Chechen Republic (at that time it was headed by Igor Khvostikov) is extremely interested in publishing in order to intensify the official investigation into the circumstances of the execution of 27 people. Unfortunately, the documents sent to us were poor quality black and white photocopies. But even from the subtle, tiny size photographs, one could definitely say that many of the persons involved in this table were photographed in the same room: the background in these photos was a white wall with a decorative plinth in the middle.

The walls with such skirting boards were fixed during the inspection of the Regiment named after Kadyrov, which was conducted by the investigators of the State Investigative Committee of the North Caucasus Federal District in the framework of the pre-investigation check on our statement about extrajudicial killings. Moreover. In the course of this check, the investigators examined (and photographed, giving us invaluable material for analysis) all units of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs for a year, where, according to our information, detained residents of Chechnya are regularly delivered to this day. But the wooden plinths on the walls were only in the Kadyrov Regiment.

only the premises in which the detainees were filmed, not only the marks of beatings on their faces, but also the clothes in which they were photographed. By that time, several families of detained residents of Chechnya had contacted Memorial Human Rights Center and Novaya Gazeta, and lawyers conducted a thorough interview with them. And the description of the clothes in which people were detained was very important. Because it was in these clothes that they were photographed after being delivered to a particular unit of the power structures of Chechnya.

In the end, our search efforts were crowned with success, and we ended up with the original of another MVD table – now with data on 108 detainees in December 2016 and January 2017 and, most importantly, with their color photographs. Unfortunately, we cannot even outline the source of this table, since the person who gave it to us took the floor from us. He put himself at great risk, and we agreed to this condition. This table (we have no doubt that it was compiled by officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Chechen Republic) contains the most detailed data on the Chechen power structures that carried out the arrests, and all 108 photographs of the detainees are grouped in accordance with which unit was detaining the people.

These photos are very eloquent. For example, in the Shali ROVD district department of Internal Affairs)  all detainees were photographed against the background of a wall, half lined with brown plastic. To the Kadyrov Regiment  background was either a wall with a plinth, or a white glass unit with jumpers, or a pipe in a boiler room, to which the detainees were handcuffed (three were photographed in this form at once).

In SOBR „Terek“ (the Chechen division of the Russian Guard), the detainees were photographed against the background of a white wall without any identification marks, but on the wall of the CPE of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic, behind the detainees, you can see departmental documents hanging on the wall.

In the new table, we found almost all the defendants (26 people) from our „list of those executed.“ It also follows from this table that employees took part in the December and January arrests:

– Regiment of the Kadyrov Patrol and Post Service(most of the detainees were brought there – 58 people);

– OMON (Special Purpose Mobile Unit )(three detainees);

-CPE of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic (Center for Countering Extremism ) together with the officers of the OMVD ( Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs)  of Russia for the Grozny district (17 people were detained);

– FSV NG (Federal Service of National Guard Troops) of Russia SOBR „Terek“ of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the North Caucasus Federal District (14 people);

– UUR (criminal investigation department ) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic (4 people);

– OP No. 2 of the Russian UMVD in Grozny ( Police Department No. 2 of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) (1 person);

– OMVD ( Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia) in Argun (10 people);

– OMVD of Russia for the city of Shali (1 person).

Here is how the detainees were distributed among the regions of Chechnya:

Kurchaloyevsky – 23 detainees,

Shalinsky – 41 detainees,

Shelkovskaya – 1 detainee,

Naursky – 3 detainees,

Grozny district – 19 detainees,

Staropromyslovsky – 4 detainees,

Leninsky – 1 detainee,

Factory area – 1 detainee,

Oktyabrsky – 7 detainees,

in the city of Argun – 10 detainees.

During the pre-investigation check carried out at our request, all the heads of the above units of the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Guard denied both the fact of the arrests and their participation in them. And only the commander of the A. Kadyrov PPSP (Police patrol service) Aslan Iraskhanov did not answer the inquiry of the investigators at all.

„Dozens of arrests on behalf of the head of Chechnya“

Back in the summer of 2017, together with Memorial Human Rights Center, we established the following: the list of “executed” consists exclusively of residents of Chechnya who were detained during the so-called special events held in the republic at the end of December 2016 and January 10-13, 2017. The new table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with color photographs and data on 108 detainees confirmed this fact.

From the point of view of the role of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, in these events, the January special operation is of particular importance, since it was widely covered by the republican media. News releases for January 11-17, 2017 are objective evidence of both the very fact of mass arrests and the fact that Ramzan Kadyrov personally directed the special measures.

Thus, the news story of January 11, 2017 (all the videos mentioned in the investigation are at the disposal of the editors. – E. M.) begins with the assertion of the news presenter that as a result of special operations in the Kurchaloyevsky district, “four [residents of Chechnya] were killed and dozens detained. “ At the 30th second of the news release, the announcer in the lead to the plot about the special event again says:

QUOTE “A special operation against the bandits took place in the Kurchaloyevsky district. As a result, four terrorists were killed, one was detained. Let me remind you that dozens of young people associated with the bandit underground have already been detained in this area. ” The correspondent begins his story with the following words: “Special events in the Kurchaloevsky district began in the morning. The task of law enforcers is to identify persons involved in gangs and to protect residents from potential threats. Operational measures are taking place on behalf of the head of Chechnya … “

During the pre-investigation check, which the investigators carried out at the request of Novaya Gazeta, the heads of the security forces and regional police departments of the republic generally denied the very fact of the mass arrests that took place in January 2017. In addition, they denied that the persons involved in the „execution list“ had ever been detained by police officers. However, for example, in the news release of the Chechen State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company „Grozny“ on January 11, 2017, one of the residents of Chechnya, detained the day before, was shown, Adam Dasaev.

In the news, he is personally interrogated by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, next to him in the frame is the commander of the Kadyrova Aslan Iraskhanov and Speaker of the Chechen Parliament Magomed Daudov.^[1]

In the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with color photographs, Adam Dasaev is listed at number 31, he is one of a group of 58 people detained by officers of the Kadyrov. In addition, Adam Dasaev appears in our “list of those executed”. According to the testimony of 15 residents of Chechnya who were detained at that time (available at the disposal of Novaya Gazeta. – E. M.), from 10 to 26 January 2017, Adam Dasaev was held with them in the same basement located in the sports complex on the base of the   regiment named after Kadyrov.

And on the night of January 26-27, Adam Dasaev was executed in the recreation room of the sixth barracks of the Kadyrov Regiment.

Regiment Commander  Aslan Iraskhanov was never questioned during the pre-investigation check. The speaker of the Chechen parliament, Magomed Daudov, told the investigator in his explanations that he did not know anything about the fate of the people on our list of those executed.

According to the official data of the investigation, based on the factually unfounded report of the head of the Central Electoral Commission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic Mezhidov (the report is not confirmed by any other data), Adam Dasaev left Chechnya in January 2017, reached Syria and joined terrorist organizations there. The news release of the Chechen State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company „Grozny“ dated January 11, 2017, questioning the report of the head of the Chechen CPE, was not attached to the materials of the pre-investigation check. On January 14, in the evening news bulletin of the Chechen State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company „Grozny“, an hour-long story was released, in which Ramzan Kadyrov, Magomed Daudov, Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic Ruslan Alkhanov, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic Apti Alaudinov, commander of the SOBR „Terek“ Abuzaid Vismuradov, commander of the Regiment named after Kadyrova Aslan Iraskhanov and other Chechen security forces stand side by side with a resident of Chechnya, Imran Dasaev, who was detained on that day, and Adam Dasaev’s cousin. In the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs we received, Imran Dasayev appears at number 79.^[2]

According to the official version of the investigation, it was the Imran Dasayev’s gang that included all residents of Chechnya detained in December 2016 and January 2017. True, they themselves found out about this and met each other only in the basements of the Kadyrov Regiment. However, the official charge brought later to Imran Dasaev stated that he was detained on February 12, that is, a month after the report of the Grozny State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company about his actual arrest. When Imran Dasayev was tried (he was sentenced to 22 years in prison), the lawyer petitioned to view the news item of January 14, 2017 in the courtroom (the trial record is at the disposal of Novaya Gazeta – Ye. M.). This story proved illegal detention and in fact made all the evidence of the prosecution inadmissible, since according to Dasaev (available at the disposal of Novaya – E.M.) it was at this time that he was tortured and forced to incriminate himself and previously unknown people with whom he was sitting in one basement. Nevertheless, the judge, without any reasoning, refused to view the video recording of the state TV channel and to assess this important evidence in the verdict. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, was not questioned by investigators during the pre-investigation check on our statement about the mass arrests and execution of 27 detainees. This significant gap in the work of the investigation must be filled. Dead „Terek“ The list of the executed, which we handed over to the investigation, includes 12 residents of Chechnya, whose photos are grouped in the color table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs under numbers 80–87 and 89–92. All 12 are “registered” by the Terek SOBR officers. And in total, judging by the data in this table, in December 2016 and January 2017, Terek employees detained 14 people. Only two survived. We managed to establish the fate of one of them. Ayub Anaev, who appears in the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at number 93, was “legalized” (that is, arrested in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation) only in March 2017. He was charged with possession of weapons (grenades).

It must be said that most of the residents of Chechnya detained in December 2016 and January 2017 were sentenced in the following months to various terms (including suspended sentences) under Article 222 of the Russian Criminal Code (possession of weapons). If you read the texts of the verdicts (Novaya Gazeta has verdicts against 26 people at its disposal – EM), it is easy to see that all of them are charged with crimes that are identical in their plot. A man walked through the village, met a patrol, seemed suspicious to him, during a personal search a passer-by „found a black plastic bag with a grenade.“ In the frame of reference of today’s Chechnya, an accusation of possession of a weapon is like an admission of innocence. This is the „easiest“ outcome that a Chechen who finds himself in a „secret prison“ can hope for.

… Twelve young people who appear in the color table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as detained by the Terek SOBR officers were not so lucky. We scrupulously found out the fate of almost each of them: the date, time, grounds and circumstances of their detention, which eventually ended in their extrajudicial execution. And these are the circumstances. On the night of December 17-18, 2016, mass detentions began in Chechnya. The reason for this was the events of December 17, when late in the evening in the center of Grozny a police patrol shot a car rushing at high speed, which knocked down a traffic police officer. The video footage of this incident was widely broadcast by the federal media.^[1]

There were 6 people in the car. Three, according to official reports from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic, were killed in a shootout. Three more – Madina Shakhbieva, Islam Bergaev and Sakhab Yusupov – were injured, detained and hospitalized in the Republican Clinical Emergency Hospital in Grozny.

Two days later, on December 20, Bergaev and Yusupov, according to the official version, died of their wounds. This was reported by the media with reference to the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs; moreover, this very version is set forth in the materials of criminal case No. 31 431 (at the disposal of Novaya Gazeta. – EM), initiated by the Chechen Investigative Committee on December 18 in connection with the attack on police officers in Grozny. As follows from the materials of this case, Bergaev, Yusupov and Shakhbieva belonged to a bandit group, which, in addition to them, included 7 more people.

Three were shot in the same car on December 17, four more were killed on December 18 during a special operation, which was officially led by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. Meanwhile, Islam Bergaev and Sakhab Yusupov, who allegedly died in the hospital, appear in the Interior Ministry’s table at numbers 80 and 81 as detained by Terek SOBR officers.

The photograph in the table of Bergaev, who allegedly died from his injuries, clearly shows traces of violence – bruises under the eyes and a bruise on the lip. But neither he, nor Yusupov’s photographs show any signs of severe gunshot wounds, as well as “severe brain contusion, subdural hematoma in the parietal region on the right, interhemispheric hemorrhage, contused laceration in the corner of the eye and parietal region on the right … „. Although this is exactly how the materials of criminal case No. 31 431 describe the wounds and injuries that Bergaev and Yusupov allegedly received in a shootout with traffic police officers on December 17, 2016. The „biological death“ of Bergaev and Yusupov from wounds and traumas received on December 20, 2016 was ascertained by doctors of the Republican Clinical Hospital of Emergency Medical Care in Grozny. So it is written in the posthumous forensic medical examinations conducted by A.Kh., an employee of the Republican Bureau of the SME of the Ministry of Health of the Chechen Republic. Abdulmezhidov (available at the disposal of Novaya Gazeta. – EM). Judging by these conclusions, made for some reason only 4 months after the December events, expert Abdulmezhidov did not see Bergaev and Yusupov dead. There is also no data on the pathological and anatomical study in the examinations, that is, the autopsies of Bergaev and Yusupov were not carried out (which is a gross violation of Federal Law No. 323).

Moreover, both expert reports represent the same text with exactly the same description of the gunshot wound (in the upper third of the left leg) and other injuries that allegedly caused the death of both Bergaev and Yusupov. It is curious that identical misprints are repeated in the texts of both examinations. From these misprints, which are present on pages 5 and 6 of both examinations in the same places, it is quite obvious that the medical documents examined by the expert Abdulmezhidov are the same epicrisis of a female (!) Patient. therefore we assume that the examinations of Bergaev and Yusupov could actually have been made on the basis of Madina Shakhbieva’s medical card.

It was she, according to the data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic published by the federal media, who actually received a serious wound during the arrest, as a result of which her leg was amputated. According to the operational data of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (at the disposal of “Novaya” – EM), she died on December 22. According to Memorial Human Rights Center, her relatives could be involved in the girl’s death: Madina allegedly became a victim of the Chechen custom of “honor killing”. However, we failed to document this fact. From the questioning of Islam Bergaev’s father (at the disposal of Novaya Gazeta. – EM) it follows that the police officers informed him about the injury of his son and his death in the hospital. However, Bergaev himself did not see his son either wounded in the hospital or dead in the morgue. Moreover, none of the parents and other close relatives identified the body of Islam Bergaev.

The situation is similar for Yusupov and Shakhbieva. But the bodies of the remaining seven residents of Chechnya, who, according to the investigation, were part of the same bandit group with Bergaev, Yusupov and Shakhbieva, were presented to relatives for identification. This follows from their testimony, obtained in the course of the investigation of criminal case No. 31 431 (available at the disposal of Novaya Gazeta – EM).

From the materials we have collected and analyzed, we can conclude that in fact, Bergaev and Yusupov were detained by Chechen security officials on December 17, 2016 completely unharmed and could not have died on December 20 from received wounds and „circulatory arrest“. In this and the following days, they were still alive. And we found not only photo, but also video evidence of this fact.

ISIS Oath

On December 20, 2016, ISIS (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) claimed responsibility for the December 17 attack in Grozny. On December 28, a video was published on the official website of the Islamic State, in which 11 young Chechens voluntarily take the oath of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This is the same group that participated in the attack on Grozny on December 17 and 18, 2016. Exactly in the middle of the line of militants, we see Bergaev. At the same time, the images of three people taking the oath of al-Baghdadi were retouched in the video. This was probably the first time that ISIS published an oath of allegiance from fighters whose identities are hidden from viewers. But why and why?

There is only one logical explanation for why the Islamic State suddenly decided to hide the identities of three of the 11 Chechens: it was in this – edited – form that the Islamic State received this record at its disposal. And most likely, it was clearly not received from the participants of the oath themselves, because they just had no reason to hide their identities. So who did it and why? We believe that the first people who got hold of the video of the oath were the Chechen police themselves. Because for the first time information about the existence of such a record appeared literally a few hours after the shootout in Grozny, that is, a few days before its publication on the ISIS resource. This was reported with reference to a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Chechnya, official news agencies – TASS and RIA Novosti, as well as the resource Life.

Most likely, the recording was found on the phones of six young people who were in the same car shot by traffic police officers late in the evening on December 17, 2016 in the center of Grozny. And it is obvious that it was not retouched, since it was from this record that the identities of the remaining 5 members of the group were most likely quickly identified. Proof of this is the personal data of the attackers, which were circulated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic within a few hours after the shooting of the car in the center of Grozny.^[2]

Later, from the report of the Chechen State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company „Grozny“ on December 19, it became obvious that the source of official information about the attack was the CPE of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Chechen Republic. This reportage and the statement of an employee of the Chechen CPE raise the question: who was the fourth detainee? Indeed, according to the official version, only three were taken alive after the attack – Yusupov, Bergaev and Shakhbieva. However, this is not the only question that arises for law enforcement agencies about this recording. Obviously, the videotape of the oath is the most important material evidence in the case of the attack on Grozny, and it is not even mentioned in the materials of this criminal case. It was not introduced even 10 days later, when a video of the oath „surfaced“ on the official ISIS website with retouched images of three of the 11 participants in the attack on police in Grozny. Any mention of the 11th participant in the attack also completely disappeared from the case materials, and the investigation did not even try to establish his identity.

Later, from the report of the Chechen State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company „Grozny“ on December 19, it became obvious that the source of official information about the attack was the CPE of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Chechen Republic. This reportage and the statement of an employee of the Chechen CPE raise the question: who was the fourth detainee? Indeed, according to the official version, only three were taken alive after the attack – Yusupov, Bergaev and Shakhbieva. However, this is not the only question that arises for law enforcement agencies about this recording. Obviously, the videotape of the oath is the most important material evidence in the case of the attack on Grozny, and it is not even mentioned in the materials of this criminal case. It was not introduced even 10 days later, when a video of the oath „surfaced“ on the official ISIS website with retouched images of three of the 11 participants in the attack on police in Grozny. Any mention of the 11th participant in the attack also completely disappeared from the case materials, and the investigation did not even try to establish his identity.

We do not know the reason why someone hid the identities of the three people in this video. We can only assume with a high degree of certainty that only the Chechen security officials had the motive and the ability to correct the record. There is another fact that strengthens us in this conjecture: one of the three people whose image is hidden in the recording is, obviously, Madina Shakhbieva. The girl can be quite confidently identified by her unretouched hand. In addition, the Life resource, which was the first to publish data on the attackers with reference to a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Chechen Republic, reported, among other things, the participation of Madina Shakhbieva’s brother in the attack on police officers in December 2016.

The Shakhbiyevs are a very difficult family; they have family ties with the State Duma deputy from Chechnya, Adam Delimkhanov (see reference). Perhaps it is this circumstance that explains the fact that the 11th participant in the attack, who was detained alive, presumably Madina Shakhbieva’s brother, does not appear in the materials of criminal case No. 31 431 and was actually removed from criminal responsibility. And the video was not included as evidence in the criminal case only in order not to establish the identity of the 11th participant. In relation to Madina herself, the criminal investigation was terminated in connection with her death.

REFERENCE Madina Shakhbieva was the niece of Shakhman Shakhbiev, an employee of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was close to the State Duma deputy from Chechnya, Adam Delimkhanov. Shakhbiev was part of the security unit of the head of Chechnya, seconded in Moscow. The so-called Chechen regiment, in which Shakhbiev was a member, served in the President Hotel on Yakimanka. Most of the time, the staff of this regiment, however, were engaged in „collection services.“ This is one of the types of criminal business that regularly brings huge revenues to the unofficial budget of Chechnya.

At the disposal of the Novaya Gazeta journalists was the material of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic on the verification of the crime report revealed by the employees of the Chechen CPE as a result of – I quote – “conducting the ORM“ observation ”on the information and telecommunication network Internet”. It turned out that on January 20, 2017, Chechen operatives were watching the Internet (as it literally follows from the report of the head of the Central Electoral Commission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic Mezhidov, it is at the disposal of Novaya Gazeta – E.M.) and quite accidentally discovered a video posted on YouTube under the title „Vilayat # Caucasus: Now and only now the battle has begun.“ In the report of Mezhidov, drawn up on this fact, it is said that on the video there are 11 residents of Chechnya, „who committed armed attacks on law enforcement officers on December 17 and 18, 2016 in Grozny …“

And all 11, according to Mezhidov, have been identified. But Madina Shakhbieva and her brother are absent from the list quoted by Mezhidov in his report. This screenshot also shows three members of the oath. And the screenshot itself was definitely taken from a video that is absolutely identical to the one that was posted on the official website of the Islamic State. Instead of Madina Shakhbieva and, presumably, her brother, Mezhidov’s report lists Adam Khusainovich Ilyasov on September 22, 1997 and Islam Alievich Alimkhanov on June 7, 1998, as participants in the attack on Grozny and persons involved in the ISIS oath. At the same time, according to the official version of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs, they were never detained by the security forces, at the end of December 2016 they left Chechnya and joined terrorist organizations in Syria. True, the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs established this fact only in the fall of 2017, after in April 2017 we handed over to the Investigative Committee of Russia a list of executed residents of Chechnya. This list includes both Adam Ilyasov and Islam Alimkhanov.

„There is no point in waiting, as it will not be …“ 18-year-old Islam Alimkhanov was detained on the night of December 17-18, 2016.

QUOTE

From the explanations of the mother, Laila Viskhanova “On December 17, 2016, Islam was at home in the evening. At about 23 hours 30 minutes Islam went for a run … In the morning of 18.12. 2016 at about 8 o’clock my son Aslan woke me up and said that Islam was not at home. I began to worry, since there was no case that Islam stayed somewhere overnight. I immediately called my brother-in-law (my husband’s younger brother) Alimkhanov Alvi … Alimkhanov Alvi and his brother Akhyad, after my call, immediately … arrived at the police department in the Oktyabrsky district of Grozny, where they reported the disappearance of Islam … Some of the police officers (I do not know the personal data and the position of the police officer) said that my son Islam is indeed in the indicated ROVD so that we do not worry that they (the police officers) will check Islam and let him go home. And since then to the present, I know nothing about the whereabouts of my son Islam … He was dressed that night in a brown quilted warm jacket … “

In the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with data on 108 detainees, Islam Alimkhanov is indeed photographed in a dark jacket, with a strong increase its color looks like a dark brown.

19-year-old Adam Ilyasov is the cousin of Magomed-Emin Ilyasov, who participated in the December attack in Grozny. From the testimony of Adam Ilyasov’s mother, Khabila Kaimova, it follows that on the night of December 17-18, all male relatives of Magomed-Emin Ilyasov were taken to the Grozny Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and held there until 4 am. Relatives of other participants in the attack, in particular, relatives of Islam Bergaev, were also at the Grozny Ministry of Internal Affairs. That night, Adam Ilyasov was released. He returned home and went to bed. At about 8 am on December 18, the phone of Adam Ilyasov’s mother, as follows from her explanations, was called again, now from the Staropromyslovsky OMVD in Grozny, and demanded that Adam come to the police station. Adam was taken to the Staropromyslovsky police station by his own uncle Khasin. Later that day, at the request of the police, he went to fetch Adam’s mobile phone and passport and returned to the police again.

QUOTE From the testimony of his uncle, Khasin Ilyasov “From the morning of December 18, 2016, I was at home, at about 8 o’clock in the morning, our daughter-in-law, Kaimova Habila, came to visit us. Approximately 5-7 minutes later, [my] nephew Adam came to us after his mother and told me that an employee from the Staropromyslovskiy ROVD in Grozny had called to Khabila’s number … and said that Adam needed to go to the CID (criminal investigation department. – E. M.) of the police department. I, having taken the phone from Adam, called the incoming number in order to find out who called and in connection with what. When I called, a man answered me … He introduced himself as deputy chief of the criminal police of the Staropromyslovskiy ROVD in Grozny Magomadov [s] Mamed [om]. During a telephone conversation, Mamed told me to quickly take Adam to their police department … Upon arrival at the ROVD … I called Mamed from my number and said that we had arrived at the ROVD … We went up to the second floor, after which I was asked to go down and wait on the first floor, and Adam was brought into an office where on the door there was a sign “Deputy Head of the Search Magomadov Mamed” … … A police officer, dressed in a black uniform, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, asked who I belonged to Adam Ilyasov … I replied that I was my uncle, and … asked why my nephew had been summoned to the ROVD, to which the lieutenant colonel explained to me that Adam is a criminal and a bandit … and said that there was no point in waiting for Adam, since he would not be … “

Life after death proof We tried to find a videotape of the ISIS oath, which was allegedly found by “watching the Internet” by employees of the Central Election Commission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Chechen Republic. But the link specified in Mezhidov’s report turned out to be invalid. Searching for the title of the video also did not return any results. But in the course of our investigation, we found another video in which Ilyasov and Alimkhanov really swear allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and a few minutes later in the same recording they renounce him and cover him up with the very last words. We also found other similar videos, in which the persons involved in our „list of executed“ first swear allegiance, and then in the same clothes, in the same scenery, they renounce ISIS. It is obvious to us that all these recordings are a clumsy performance. All videos of the ISIS staged oaths were posted for the first time on YouTube on the Facts online channel. This channel was created on February 13, 2017. It contains exclusively videos exposing critics of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. All of them are made according to the same patterns.

Videos with false oaths to ISIS are made in the best traditions of the well-known genre of “apologies to Ramzan Kadyrov”.^[3]

The video with the participation of the persons involved in our “list of those executed” Yusupov, Bergaev, Ilyasov and Alimkhanov is called “The bloody history of Kharijism in Chechnya. December 2016 „. The recording begins with frames of the same video, in which 11 young people (the images of three are retouched) voluntarily take the oath of allegiance to Al Baghdadi, among them one can identify Islam Bergaev – he is sitting in the very center in a light gray sweatshirt. At 18 minutes 58 seconds, a voice-over says: “They called to kill those who serve the state. Now they repent. How sincere this repentance is is difficult to judge.

They express dissatisfaction and disagreement with Al Baghdadi, the one to whom they previously took the oath of allegiance. Is this hypocrisy or a sincere awareness of mistakes? “ And at the 19th minute, 14th second of this recording, we again see Islam Bergaev. He has lost weight and is clearly exhausted. But the bruises on his face are no longer visible. He sits against the background of a black flag with a white skull and bones and says with his head down: “I am the one who swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to obey and obey. Because of my delusions, I considered him the son of the Caliph … “ ^[4]

Similar in content renunciation of al-Baghdadi and ISIS against the background of a flag with a skull and bones are pronounced by Adam Ilyasov (at the 19th minute, 17th second of the video), Sakhab Yusupov (20th minute of the recording) and Islam Alimkhanov (20th minute 12 -th second of recording). In the photographs in the MVD table with data on 108 detainees, Ilyasov and Alimkhanov appear as numbers 82 and 83. In the photographs, both clearly show traces of physical violence. Hematomas on the face of Islam Alimkhanov have a pronounced purple tint. This fact indicates that this photograph of Alimkhanov was taken at least one day after the beatings were inflicted. There is no sign of these hematomas on the video with the ISIS swearing oath. This is absolute proof that the video was made a few days after the guys were arrested.

Besides, it is these videos that are objective evidence that Bergaev and Yusupov were not injured on December 17, 2016 during their arrest. Both have no signs of bullet wounds or „lacerations“ in the head area on the record. And this means that they could not die in the hospital on December 20, 2016 from non-existent wounds and injuries.

„Al Baghdadi, you are a tsereushnaya creature …“ In the materials of the inspection, which the State Investigation Directorate for the North Caucasus Federal District carried out on our application for a mass extrajudicial execution, there is a protocol of inspection of objects (documents). As it follows from it, on September 18, 2017, Vladimir Kozhev, an investigator of the State Investigative Directorate for the North Caucasus Federal District, examined a disc with a video recording entitled “Recruitment failed.

We present to your attention the exposure of the ISIS (so in the protocol. – EM). Recruiters on the Internet do not abandon their attempts to use young people for their dirty purposes. “ This is another staged video depicting the renunciation of ISIS (an organization banned in the Russian Federation), in which members of our „list of those executed“ appear.^[5]

The record, the content of which the investigator Kozhev describes in the protocol, contains six screenshots taken from it. On the first screenshot, you can confidently identify Saikhan Vakhamsoltaevich Eskarbiev, on the second – Alvi Aslambekovich Khakimov. Both appear on our list of those executed and are listed in the Interior Ministry’s table with 108 detainees numbered 84 and 85.

The same investigator Kozhev added to the inspection materials the documents based on the report of the head of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Chechen Republic Mezhidov, from which it follows that Khakimov and Eskarbiev left Chechnya at the end of December 2016 and joined the Islamic State in Syria. But the materials of the check also contain statements by the parents of Khakimov and Eskarbiev, from which it follows that their sons were actually detained by police officers in December 2016. And in contrast to the report of the head of the Central Electoral Commission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic Mezhidov, the statements of the parents of Khakimov and Eskarbiev are confirmed by objective evidence.

From the explanation of Eskarbiev’s mother, Zhensat Lamaeva, it follows that on December 21, 2016, Saykhan Eskarbiev went to Grozny to visit his friend in the hospital and disappeared. On December 22, Lamaeva filed a complaint about his disappearance with the Shelkovskiy District Ministry of Internal Affairs, and on January 6 Eskarbiev’s relatives – I quote – “were summoned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic, located in Grozny, on the street. OH. Isaeva, where in the assembly hall they gathered all relatives whose children also disappeared or were taken from their homes by law enforcement officers [at the end of December]. Alaudinov Apti spoke in the assembly hall, who told us that our children were alive and were with them … “

On the day of his disappearance, December 21, 2016, Saykhan Eskarbiev, according to his mother, was wearing a blue down jacket. The photo in the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with data on 108 detainees clearly shows that Saykhan Eskarbiyev is indeed wearing a blue down jacket.

From the explanations of Khakimov’s relatives it follows that Alvi Khakimov disappeared on December 21, the very day his wife gave birth to his son. At 11 o’clock on December 21, the mother called Alvi Khakimov and said that his wife was in labor and needed to be taken to the maternity hospital in Grozny. Alvi Khakimov said that he would stop by his friend Apti Uspanov to borrow 10 thousand rubles. He actually stopped by Apti Uspanov and borrowed the money. And at 12 o’clock, Alvi Khakimov’s wife received a WhatsApp message from her husband’s phone that he would not arrive today. Alvi Khakimov was dressed that day in a dark blue jacket. She is clearly visible in the photo in the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In addition, Apti Arbievich Uspanov, born on 03.09.1990, a resident of the Naurskiy region (where the Khakimovs also live), appears at number 88 in the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a detainee.

Apti Uspanov is apparently the only person who was released from the Terek SOBR after being detained. This is known from the testimony of the mother of Alvi Khakimov, who communicated with Apti Uspanov and thus learned that her son really borrowed money from his friend. And then, apparently, they were both detained.

From the explanations of Khakimov’s relatives it follows that Alvi Khakimov disappeared on December 21, the very day his wife gave birth to his son. At 11 o’clock on December 21, the mother called Alvi Khakimov and said that his wife was in labor and needed to be taken to the maternity hospital in Grozny. Alvi Khakimov said that he would stop by his friend Apti Uspanov to borrow 10 thousand rubles. He actually stopped by Apti Uspanov and borrowed the money. And at 12 o’clock, Alvi Khakimov’s wife received a WhatsApp message from her husband’s phone that he would not arrive today.

Alvi Khakimov was dressed that day in a dark blue jacket. She is clearly visible in the photo in the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In addition, Apti Arbievich Uspanov, born on 03.09.1990, a resident of the Naurskiy region (where the Khakimovs also live), appears at number 88 in the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a detainee. Apti Uspanov is apparently the only person who was released from the Terek SOBR after being detained. This is known from the testimony of the mother of Alvi Khakimov, who communicated with Apti Uspanov and thus learned that her son really borrowed money from his friend. And then, apparently, they were both detained.

On December 22, Alvi Khakimov’s father filed a complaint about the disappearance of his son with the police department of the village of Nikolaevskaya, Naursky district. From the explanations of Khakimov’s mother, it follows that on the evening of December 22, people in military uniform without identification marks came to their house, with them was a local precinct officer named Bashir.

They carried out, in fact, a search, during which they seized the laptop. The search warrant was not presented, the seizure protocol was not drawn up. On January 5, 2017, Alvi’s father – we quote an explanation from the inspection materials – “got an appointment with the head of the police department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Naurskiy district named Shirvani (presumably this is Shirvani Edelgeriev, who really has something to do with the OMVD of the Russian Federation for the Naurskiy district, as follows from the extract The unified register of small and medium-sized businesses is at the disposal of „Novaya“. – EM) … During the conversation, Shirvani showed a video with my son’s participation in the confession of the radical [I] movement „Islam“ and various statements, and also said that he (Alvi) is with the authorities. He did not explain exactly who and where … “

It was this video that the mother of Alvi Khakimova handed over to Vladimir Kozhev, the investigator of the State Investigative Committee of the State Investigative Committee for the SUFO. The video is easy to find on YouTube, all on the same propaganda channel Facts online. We reviewed the footage to the end and found that the investigator Kojève did not fully describe the contents of this video. Therefore, very important facts were not included in the protocol. Namely.

At the 19th minute and 12th second, in the video, we see a room with light curtains, on which the ISIS flag with a white inscription in Arabic is suspended. Saykhan Escarbiev sits against the background of the flag. On the video, he calls for jihad, but if you look closely, it becomes clear: in fact, Eskarbiev is reading the text that lies in front of him on some low surface (on a chair or coffee table). At the 19th minute, 26th second, we already see Alvi Khakimov sitting against the background of the same flag. Alvi Khakimov tries to improvise, he even remembers the gurias in paradise for suicide bombers, but he gets lost, lowers his head and looks, apparently, at the hint text.

At the 19th minute, 46th second of this video, we are again shown Saikhan Eskarbiev and then Alvi Khakimov. But behind them is a completely different flag – also black, but with a white skull and bones. At the same time, Eskarbiyev and Khakimov are dressed in the same clothes in which they were removed against the background of the ISIS flag. The voice of the announcer sounds off-screen: “But here is a completely different shooting and a completely different opinion of the same lost. Only yesterday, so zealously and resolutely ready to fulfill any order of their vicious leaders in the right situation, they renounce them here … “ – This Abu Bakr Baghdadi is a finished cock! – says Alvi Khakimov against the background of a flag with a skull and bones.

– Your jihad is a computer, no more! Button fucking hero! Computer rat! You are a shaitan, and there is no way to call you! .. A tsereushnaya creature! – Saykhan Eskarbiev says after him.

We confidently assume that the staged videos with false oaths were most likely made at the very end of December 2016 after the December arrests of all 14 people who appear in the Interior Ministry’s table and are registered with the Terek SOBR officers. In our opinion, staged videos with ISISs false oaths are of great evidentiary value, since they objectively refute the version that Escarbiyev, Khakimov, Alimkhanov, Ilyasov and other young people detained at the end of December 2016 left Chechnya to Syria and joined al-Baghdadi – a man whom they publicly called „the tsereushny creature“ …

The second part of Novaya Gazeta’s investigation will be published shortly. In it, we will tell you about the circumstances of the mass arrests of Chechen residents during the so-called special measures, carried out by order of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, in January 2017. We will also publish an interview with an employee of the Polk them. Kadyrov, who participated in these special events and witnessed the execution of the detainees.

Koban Sennin

^[1]      (1) Перестрелка в грозном 17.12.2016 – YouTube

^[2]      Новостной выпуск грозненского телевидения от 19 декабря 2016 года on Vimeo

^[3]      Канал Facts online – YouTube

^[4]      «Нарушение присяги» on Vimeo

^[5]      «Вербовка сорвалась» on Vimeo