Russia: Human rights defender, Zurab Tsetchoev, kidnapped and beaten by armed troops in Ingushetia

Your Excellency,

I am deeply concerned following reports of the alleged kidnapping and beating of human rights defender Zurab Tsetchoev in Ingushetia on 25 July 2008. Zurab Tsetchoev is a member of Autonomous Non-Commercial Organisation (ANCO) Mashr, the Republic of Ingushetia's Association of Relatives of Missing Persons.

On 25 July 2008, Zurab Tsetchoev was kidnapped by unidentified security servicemen from his home in the village of Troitskaya, in the Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia. At approximately 6.00 am, three armed troops carriers, three 'Gazel' minibuses and a number of other vehicles, carrying approximately 50 persons, arrived at the home of Zurab Tsetchoev. They forced him to the ground and pointed guns at him. A number of the armed personnel entered his home and carried out an unwarranted search. They reportedly removed Zurab Tsetchoev's computer and two mobile phones. They took Zurab Tsetchoev away in a 'Gazel' minibus.

Relatives of Zurab Tsetchoev contacted the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor's office to try to establish his whereabouts but were informed that neither the Ministry nor the Prosecutor's office knew who had carried out the unwarranted search or taken him, nor on what grounds.

On 26 July 2008, at 12.40 am, Zurab Tsetchoev was left on a road between the Ingush towns of Magas and Nazran by the security services. Zurab Tsetchoev had been badly beaten and contacted colleagues who collected him and brought him to the offices of Memorial human rights organisation, before taking him to the Republican Clinical Hospital. At the hospital he was treated for a broken leg and contusions to the kidneys, arms and chest.

Zurab Tsetchoev made a complaint to the European Court for Human Rights regarding the ineffective investigation into the abduction of his brother, Tamerlan Tsetchoev, also a human rights defender, on 15 March 2004. It is believed that the kidnapping and beating of Zurab Tsetchoev, and the unwarranted search on his home, are related to his human rights activities.

I urge the Russian and Ingush authorities to:

1. Carry out an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the kidnapping and beating of human rights defender Zurab Tsetchoev, with a view to identifying those parties responsible, publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice;

2. Take urgent and effective measures to ensure the protection of Zurab Tsetchoev and his family;

3. Ensure that all human rights defenders in Russia and Ingushetia are free to carry out their legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights, without fear of intimidation or reprisal.

I respectfully remind you that the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998, recognises the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals.

I would particularly draw attention to Article 6 (a): “Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: (a) To know, seek, obtain, receive and hold information about all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including having access to information as to how those rights and freedoms are given effect in domestic legislative, judicial or administrative systems,” and to Article 12 (2): “The State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.”

Yours sincerely,