Executions “in the course of detention attempt”

4.6. Executions “in the course of detention attempt”.

The use of this tactic is possibly due to the fact that the security services engaged in the anti-terrorist operations in the North Caucasus have been instructed to put an end to the practice of forced disappearances of people, which has caused a great damage to the reputation of the Russian special services. In 2007, the number of abductions has dropped, although the practice has not disappeared completely - both in Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic. However, despite this, the quality of work of the security services and investigators has not improved - this means that no-one bothers with the laborious work in collecting the evidence against suspects. Therefore, given the lack of evidence on hands, the suspect is no longer abducted, as before, nor brought before the court, as expected, but shot at the time of detention. Over the first half of 2007, this scenario happened to H. Mutaliev, A. M. Chahkiev and A.Gardanov. In the summer and autumn of 2007 - A. Dalakov, I. Belokiev and two brothers - R. and S-M.Galayev joined that sad list. Adam Malsagov who offered no resistance to the ”siloviks”, was also exposed to open fire without warning, but Malsagov managed to escape.

At that moment three armed men in camouflage trousers and black T-shirts came into the courtyard. Without any warning, they opened fire in the direction of A. Malsagov. By lucky coincidence, neither Adam nor the children who were standing next to him, were injured (one of the bullets hit the pipe a few centimetres away from Adam’s head). Malsagov rushed into the back of the courtyard and then into the neighbors’ house, then - onto the street and fled in an unknown direction. Adam's nephews, frightened, ran after him and his sister was frozen stiff with the shock caused by the sudden shooiting. Unknown people continued to shoot at the backs of the fleeing people shouting: "Down, you bitches!". When Adam and the teenagers were out of sight, the armed men contacted someone on their portable transmitter and said: "We missed them, the second group." After a few minutes, house No 108 was blocked on all sides by a group of up to 60 armed men most of whom were masked. They presented a search warrant and an arrest warrant for Adam Malsagov. In the warrant it was stated that in the territory of the household located at Tutayev St., 108 may be located a cache with large quantities of weapons and explosives. The owners asked the "siloviks" not to break the doors and locks, saying that they were ready to open themselves all that would be required. The request was ignored. The "siloviks" were breaking the locks on closed doors, the floor, turning the furniture upside down. The search was thorough yet the attesting witnesses had not been invited. Everyone who was in the house was brought out onto the street, put along the wall and photographed.

During the search nothing illegal was found. The owners were not given a copy of a search protocol. The dwellers from seven houses had their mobile phones seized. Earlier they had witnessed a conversation between two security forces officers: "Maybe, we will confiscate phones?" - "Well, if you need them, no problem."

After the "siloviks" left, the relatives went in search of Timur and Ismail. One was found in their relatives’ house in the village of Altiyevo, the second - in the neighbors’ house. Both boys were in deep shock, Timur was stammering badly and was afraid to go to sleep.

Adam Malsagov is a student at the Faculty of Law of the Ingush State University. When his family tried to find out the reason of his attempted arrest, the "siloviks" replied: "He has shot our guys."

According to the witnesses, the "siloviks" opened fire at Malsagov and the children standing beside him without preceding warning. Malsagov did not provide any resistance but he had no other choice but to run for life and try to escape from the people who were shooting at him. Neither he nor his relatives could know who the people shooting at him actually were: representatives of the state authorities or bandits.

At the time of writing, Adam Malsagov continued to be in hiding from the law enforcement authorities. His relatives were repeatedly summoned to the UFSB of RI office and asked about his whereabouts, they replied that such were unknown to them.

On August 30, at about 4:20 pm, Islam Yusupovich Belokiev, born in 1988, was killed at the car spare parts market in the Nasyr-Kortsky district of the city of Nazran. News agencies immediately reported, quoting official sources, that he was a gunman and was killed during a special operation. The Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor of RI Zinaida Tomova told RIA Novosti that Belokiev offerd armed resistance during a special operation on his detention carried out by the officers of the Centre T of the Russian Ministry of Interior and the UFSB of Ingushetia and was, therefore, destroyed by retaliation fire. According to the law enforcement officials, Belokiev was a member of a gang headed by Adam Nalgiev, who was himself killed during a special operation in June 2006, involved in subversive and terrorist acts and attacks on officers of the FSB in Ingushetia. In addition, Belokiev was sticking leaflets containing threats against members of the Ingushetia Ministry of Interior in Nazran in July 2007..

The staff of the HRC Memorial visited the scene of the murder of Belokiev and interviewed the eye-witnesses. According to the sellers at that market, over the past two years Islam, together with his parents, was selling automobile oils here, his family had been renting iron container No 12. Islam would usually leave for home after 3 pm. That day he closed the container and walked towards the market exit. He was hailed by the people sitting in a VAZ-2110 car parked under a willow outside the market. Islam turned in their direction and at that moment shots were heard. Numerous eye-witnesses claim that Islam Belokiev was still standing for a few moments, then slowly sank down to the ground. The people who were at the market at the time rushed towards the body. But the people who had shot him, among whom one man of Slavic appearance wearing a jumpsuit and jeans, surrounded Islam and did not allow anyone to approach to him. Soon, a Gazel minibus arrived and the special federal task force officers who ran out of it formed a second ring of the cordon. Unlike those who shot Islam, they were wearing bulletproof jackets, OMON masks on their heads. Later soldiers arrived in an armored personnel carrier. The young man was still living for, at least, forty minutes. Eye-witnesses say that from time to time he would turn his head. The ”siloviks” who numbered up to 70-80 people did not provide any medical aid to him. The local policemen were not allowed to approach. The eye-witnesses claim that over this time a pistol and a hand-grenade were put near the fatally wounded man. The "siloviks" did it so openly, not even attempting to hide: putting a gun into the hands of Islam Belokiev they shot from it several times into the air. They searched Belokiev, found keys from his container and went to open it. The "siloviks" ordered the people to move away claiming that there can be explosives in there. The owner, who leased the container to Belokiev, said that there can be no explosives, took the keys, opened it himself warning the "siloviks" against planting anything illegal. Together with them and a local policeman he went inside. Having Upon being satisfied that there was nothing in the container, "siloviks" went away.

Some time later officers of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia and physicians, but Islam Belokiev was already dead. The body was taken to the city morgue and subsequently given to relatives. According to eyewitnesses, the killed has not provided any resistance. If desired, it could be easily to arrest him.

On September 27, in the village of Sagopshi during a joint special operation of the federal and the republican security structures two local residents, the Galayev brothers: Said-Magomed Hasanovich, born in 1983, and Ruslan Hasanovich, born in 1986, residing at the Oskanova St., 77, were killed.

On the same day, the press service of the Ministry of Interior of RI reported that in the course of the special operation in the village Sagopshi "… two militants offered armed resistance and were destroyed. One of those killed was Said-Magomed Galayev (alias "Abdul-Malik"), the so-called "emir" of the militants in the Malgobeksky district of Ingushetia, "and one alleged participant of IAGs was arrested, and towards him currently are being conducted operational investigative activities. "As a result of the special operation two officers by UVD on the Kurgan region were wounded with various degrees of gravity" - the press service reported. ³⁷

At about 6:30 am officers of the security forces (numbering in total more than 200 people) arrived near the Galayevs’ house in two armored personnel carriers, a Ural vehicle and ten armored UAZ vehicles. The house was blockaded on all the sides, about fifty people entered the courtyard. Said-Magomed's wife noticed military men in the yard and told her husband about it. Said-Magomed shouted to the brothers that there were soldiers in the yard and went to the entrance door. But even before he left the room, the ”siloviks” broke into the house and opened aimed fire. Magomed-Said and his brother Ruslan, who was also approaching the entrance door were killed. Fasimat, who was awaken by the sound of shots, saw how Ruslan staggered into her room and fell down near her bed. Her daughter-in-law was heard shouting in another room where she was held by the military men. The woman, Said-Akhmed and Tagir were taken out into the street. The soldiers three grenades into each room and only after that forced Tagir to drag out the bodies of his brothers outside. The women and the child were forced to sit next to the bodies. According to Madina, a Russian soldier came up to her and asked her for a black plastic bag. Madina said that there was no plastic bag in the house. He left the yard and soon returned with an empty blue bag, sat down near the shed and started filling the bag with cartridges from his submachine gun, later this package with the cartridges was included into the protocol as found in the house of Galayevs during the search. Also the protocol of the search claimed that two automatic and other weapons. Where and under what circumstances the firearms were found is unknown to the Galayevs - they claim that they did not have any weapons in their house. They were not present at the time when the search was conducted. Tagir, immediately after he dragged the dead bodies out into the street, was taken to the Malgobek district department of internal affairs. Shortly afterwards Fasimat Galayev and her daughter-in-law Madina were also delivered there. Said-Akhmed stayed alone in the yard. He was sitting near his brothers’ bodies for a few hours until they were taken away by the militaries. The search in the house lasted for several hours, without observation of the standard procedure.

The detainees were interrogated separately. The interrogation was led by the investigator of the Prosecutor's Office Adam Sultanovich Tsechoyev. During the interrogation Fasimat expressed her indignation at the murder of her children were murdered without any guilt being on them. She asked: "Where are the authorities?" - "What authorities?" - the investigator smiled - "they offered armed resistance, after all".

Tagir was asked where the weapons found in his house came from, where he and his brothers were on the night of September 8 during the attack on military unit No 3733 located on the outskirts of Malgobek, he was also asked about a number of acquaintances of brothers.

Meanwhile, near the Malgobek district department of internal affairs gathered up to one hundred people: all of them were Galayevs' relatives and neighbors, who were demanding an immediate release of the detained and would not disperse until their demands were fulfilled. At 7:00 pm Fasimat was released from the district department of internal affairs, at 10:00 pm Tagir and half an hour later Madina were also released.

On September 28 the Galayevs received the bodies of the brothers who were buried the same day.

According to people from the village where the Galayevs lived, the murdered brothers had never been involved in anything illegal, were living a rather open life, followers of the traditional Islam, worked as builders on private construction sites.

On November 26, the investigator of the Ministry of Interior department of invesgations for the city of Malgobek SU SK of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for RI, A.A. Kurkiev ruled on refusal to initiate criminal proceedings on the complaint of Fasimat Galayeva

The "siloviks" acting in this way were apparently certain of their complete impunity and permissiveness.

However, the following execution led to a significant increase in the protest activitiesI in the republic, not only among ordinary citizens but also among the police officers of RI.

4.6.1. The extrajudicial execution of Apti Dalakov

The media, quoting official sources, reported of a killing of a bandit in the course of a special operation. "There was a special operation aimed at detaining persons involved in the recent crimes. One was killed, one was arrested"- said Moussa Medov, the Minister of the Interior of Ingushetia. "The one killed is a certain Apti Dalakov. At his age of 20, he, according to the investigation, was an active member of an armed gang. He had a defensive F-1 grenade with him". "In the town of Karabulak, in front of the building which used to be the “Ryabinka” kindergarten, Dalakov Apti, who had a grenade on him, offered armed resistance. As a result Dalakov was killed on the spot "- reported Pavel Belyakov, Deputy Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Ingushetia. -"His accomplice was a young man called Ilez Dolgiev. He has already given his testimony to the police. He is accused of participation in illegal armed groups ".³⁸

The HRC Memorial has conducted its own enquiry and interviewed numerous eye-witnesses of the event. According to them, Apti Dalakov and his friends were leaving the computer room located next to the school-gymnasium at General Oskanov St. when two Gazel minibuses stopped near them - a white and a dark blue one, both without registration number plates and with tinted windows. Three dozen masked gunmen ran out of them, one or two of them were in civilian clothes. Seeing their firearms aimed at them, the young people, including those mentioned by the Deputy Public Prosecutor of RI Ilez Dolgiev, afraid and ran through courtyards of the blocks of flats in the direction of Dzhabagiev st. Witnesses say that following fleeing "siloviks" deliberately opened fire with automatic weapons "from knees." It was Sunday, and only by a happy accident of courtyards no one of the many women and children was hurt.

Apti Dalakov ran across Dzhabagiev St. and ran into the courtyard of the “Ryabinka” kindergarten inhabited by displaced persons from the Prigorodny district of the Republic South Ossetia-Alania. Here his persecutors caught up with him. According to the refugees, there were two of them: one in camouflage and a mask, the other - in civilian clothes and with an open face. One of them shouted at a woman looking at them: "Close the window" - and after that shots were heard. Apti fell face down. A man in civilian clothes approached him, pulled Apti’s own T-shirt on his face and shot several times from a pistol at the lying man and then made a ”proof shot” in the head. After that he put some object in the hand of Dalakov. By that time the second group of perpetrators appeared on the scene having come from the other side of the kindergarten. According to the local police officers conducting further investigations, it turned out that this "object" was a hand-grenade.

Having heard the sound of shots the police officers and the officers of the republican OMON, whose base is located on the outskirts of Karabulak, also arrived to the kindergarten. They demanded the unidentified armed men to introduce themselves and tried to approach the body. In response they heard threats. Aiming weapons at the Ingush policemen, the unknown men shouted: "Do not approach, you fags… or we shoot!". The confrontation did not last long: the unidentified men demanded additional forces on their portable radio and the man in civilian clothes ordered someone on the portable radio: "Hide away the bag, otherwise the local policemen will soon arrive and there will be problems". An officer of the local police, who overheard this, believed that he was talking about the bag with the firearms, which they were going to plant on the murdered Apti.

An angry crowd of locals had gathered near the kindergarten, calls to lynch the murderers were heard. Only the decisive actions of the Ingush policemen have to be thanked for the fact that the crowd was contained, even though with great difficulty. Despite the speedy arrival of the federal security service officers at the scene of the crime in "Ural" and UAZ vehicles and later in armored personnel carriers, the local policemen managed to disarm and take to the municipal department of internal affairs the direct perpetrators of the murder of Apti Dalakov. According to the Karabulak police officers, the arrested refused to introduce themselves or explain the reasons for their actions. They were searched in the course of which FSB officers identity cards issued in other people's names were found on them: the four Russians had some Ingush names and the only Ingush had an Azeri name stated in their identity cards. Soon the senior officers of the UFSB for Ingushetia arrived to the municipal police department. They demanded release of the detained, the return of their firearms and the cartridge cases picked up at the scene of the murder, their demands were satisfied. Thus, it became impossible to check the firearms belonging to this group of FSB officers as to its possible use in other killings committed. Despite the resistance on the part of the officers of the Karabulak police, in the evening of the same day an order came from the Minister of Interior of Ingushetia to release the murderers.

The incident had its continuation during the Ingushetia visit of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, on September 13. At a meeting in the capital of RI Magas Dmitry Kozak came down with harsh criticism against the Ministry of Interior of Ingushetia, which, in his opinion, was operating inefficiently, failing to coordinate its activities with the federal "siloviks", was unable to conduct proper work with the population and had supporters of militants, corruptionists and traitors among its ranks. The Plenipotentiary Representative particularly focused on the September 2 events in Karabulak. The cause of Kozak's outrage were not the unlawful acts of the FSB officers, but the fact that the ordinary policemen had the cheek to bring them to the municipal police department. The Plenipotentiary Representative demanded punishment for the policemen for basically just performing their professional duties, forbidding them to take any action against the arbitrariness of the unidentified people in civilian clothes. It remains unclear how then the policemen should have distinguished FSB officers from the militants. And could this be the reason for the recent successful acts of the latter on the streets of Ingushetia's settlements?

Among other indicative aspects is the reaction to the September 2 events demonstrated on the part of the Public Prosecutor's office in Karabulak. It would only seem natural for them to pay most urgent attention to checking the reports on the shooting occuring on the town streets which was started by a group of unidentified persons without any apparent reason, on extrajudicial execution perpetrated by persons in civilian clothes. Indeed, it is clear that these actions have contributed to the destabilization of the situation in the republic. But this is by far not the case!

At a meeting with the staff members of the HRC Memorial the Prosecutor of RI Yu.N.Turygin⁴⁰ reported that the Public Prosecutor's office reacted to these events by opening two criminal cases: one - on the fact of alleged armed resistance offered by Apti Dalakov, the second - against the municipal department of internal affairs (police) of Karabulak who detained the killers.

From other sources it became known that the criminal case against the policemen was opened by the Directorate of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office for the Southern Federal District pursuant to Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (exceeding official powers). Twenty OMON officers went to Nalchik for interrogations by the investigators.-Twenty six staff members of the municipal police department, headed by Superintendent A. Murzabekov, were also ordered to come and offer their testimonies in Kabardino-Balkaria. The Ingush policemen refused to travel there claiming that they could not leave the town of Karabulak "exposed" and suggested that the investigator of the Prosecutor's Office himself comes to interrogate them.

The republican authorities were not ready to offer support to the Ingush policemen who tried to carry out their duty properly and with due integrity.

The relatives of Apti Dalakov appealed to the Prosecutor's Office with a statement requesting opening of a criminal case on the fact of killing of an unarmed person. In this statement, they refer to the statements of the eye-witnesses who saw that Apti did not even attempt to offer any resistance, that he was unarmed, that the murderers fnished him off when he was already injured and that the firearms were planted when he was already dead. The interests of Dalakov's relatives are represented by a staff lawyer of the Memorial. The criminal case on the killing of Apti Dalakov by FSB officers has not been opened. Moreover, no checking of the relevant statements has been conducted.

In response to the question from the staff members of the HRC Memorial, whether the Prosecutor's Office are going to check the allegations concerning the crime committed against Dalakov, the Prosecutor Yu. N. Turygin answered⁴¹ that the qualification of any actions of FSB officers can only be given by the Military Prosecutor's Office. But is it not the duty of the Public Prosecutor's Office of RI to appeal to their colleagues from the Military Prosecutor's Office for such a qualification because there are substantial grounds to require such a procedure? The Prosecutor replied that now it is up to the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor's Office. It appeared impossible to obtain an answer from him as to whether he, as an official in charge of supervising the investigation of criminal cases, intends to do something in this connection.

In contradiction with the words of the Prosecutor of RI, his subordinate, the acting Prosecutor of the town of Karabulak gives his own qualification of these actions of FSB officers claiming that they had not committed anything illegal against Dalakov. He writes: "… I report that the Prosecutor's Office of the Town of Karabulak has examined criminal case No 27520028 and found that Dalakov A.O. was killed by officers of the UFSB for RI while offering armed resistance <…>. On the same day the Prosecutor's Office of the Town of Karabulak opened a criminal case on this fact pursuant to Article 317 and Part 1 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. ⁴² The investigation does not have any evidence on the fact of murder of Dalakov A. O ." ⁴³

The staff of the HRC Memorial attempted to find out from the Prosecutor of RI why his subordinate is nevertheless giving a qualification of the actions of FSB officers? "You can address a complaint to me concerning this response, I will examine it and sort out the situation", - this was all that the Prosecutor has found necessary to say in reply.

The Public Prosecutor's Office and the Prosecutor of RI Yu.N. Turygin himself are unwilling to even approach the question of the legality of the actions of the FSB officers, however, the same stance is taken by the members of all the other law-enforcement agencies in the territory of the republic who are thus contributing to further destabilization of the situation.

As was mentioned above, another person running away together with Apti Dalakov was Ilez Dolgiev. He was detained immediately after the murder of Dalakov, declared "member of illegal armed groups" and brought to the municipal department of internal affairs of Karabulak. The attempt was to charge him together with Apti Dalakov with committing the murder of the Draganchuk family.

The next day, on September 3, again on suspicion of involvement in the murder of the Draganchuk family, two more people were detained: Magomed Girikhanovich Ozdoyev, born in 1986, resident of Karabulak, Ryumakov st., 50, and Kazbek Maksharipovich Matiev, born in 1978, resident of Nazran, Kazbegi st., 15, whom the media also mentioned as suspects in the criminal case.

In the late September, Kazbek Matiev appealed to the Memorial with a statement where he described the details of his detention and asked to protect him from further prosecution. "In the building of the municipal police department I was interrogated, as it turned out, in connection with suspicion of involvement in the murder of the Draganchuk family. I was called a Wahhabi, a terrorist.. <…> told me that the days of my life were numbered and that they would soon "deal" with me like they did with Apti". A criminal case on the facts of murder and terrorism was opened against me. Upon expiration of 10 days I was released due to lack of evidence without being charged with anything. All the TV channels reported that I was a murderer and terrorist. They refused to give any retractions.

It is highly probable that without the publicity that has been given to the extrajudicial execution of Apti Dalakov, the law enforcement agencies would have tried to concoct criminal charges of involvement in the killing of the Draganchuk family.