Human rights defender Imran Ezhiev, head of the Information Centre of the Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship in Chechnya (SRFC) in the Northern Caucasus, is allegedly at grave risk due to his investigation of the recent kidnapping and assassination of his colleague Aslan Davletukaev, whose dead body was reportedly discovered on 16 January 2004, bearing evidence of torture and mutilation.
On 26 January 2004, it was reported that the house and workplace of Mr. Ezhiev in Ingushetia were being watched by unidentified individuals. It was also reported that he was being followed by unidentified individuals driving four cars without license plates. Cars without license plates have allegedly been used in the past to kidnap Chechen refugees, and there are concerns that when road police don't stop a car without number plates, it because it belongs to the security service of the pro-Moscow president of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov.
Last night (29 January 2004), Imran Ezhiev was taken into custody by Chechen police, along with two other colleagues. They were held overnight and released this morning (30 January 2004), after the intervention of the Chairwoman of the Presidential Human Rights Commission of the Russian Federation, to whom Front Line had sent an urgent appeal yesterday.
Imran Ezhiev is the brother of another SRFC member, Akhmed Ezhiev, who was killed after he had called for the killers of his colleague Luisa Beterguerieva to be brought to justice during a speech at her funeral. Akhmed Ezhiev's son, Minkhail Ezhiev, spoke at the Front Line Platform in Dublin Castle last September.
Imran Ezhiev was previously kidnapped on 15 March 2003, and held for three days, reportedly in connection to his human rights investigations in Chechnya. During that period, he was gathering information for the annual SRFC report on human rights in Chechnya, and researching violations of economic, social and cultural rights in Chechnya on behalf of the Organisation mondiale contre la torture (OMCT), in order to present the information to the 31st session of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in November 2003.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, was reported on 22 January 2004 to have dismissed his envoy for human rights in Chechnya, turning over the task of overseeing the issue to Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov. The move has sparked renewed concern from human rights organizations about the potential for ongoing human rights violations in the region. Front Line continues to be gravely concerned for the safety of Human Rights Defenders in Chechnya.