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Russian Talibs Found Through London
// Two former prisoners of Guantanomo were kidnapped in Moscow
Persecution
Airat Vakhitov, freelance journalists of Versiya daily, and his friend Rustam Akhmyarov, former prisoners of the U.S. military base in Guantanomo, were detained in Moscow last Saturday without any valid grounds. According to some sources, the first has been sent to Naberezhny Chelny, another – to Novosibirsk. The police of Tatarstan has questions for them.
Airat Vakhitov, Rustam Akhmyarov and five more Russian citizens fought for the Talibs against the Americans and were taken prisoners in 2002. Russia succeeded in their extradition in 2004. In their motherland, they were charged with the illegal frontier crossing, participation in mercenary units and criminal conspiracy but the case was closed in the absence of evidence. The seven were released, but most of them – not for a long time. This April, former Talibs Timur Ishmuradov and Ravil Gumarov were arrested on terrorism charges in Bugulma (Tatarstan). According to the Federal Security Service, they took part in the blowing up of the low-pressure gas pipeline in Bugulma on January 8 (with no victims). The investigation has been finished and the case was forwarded to court.
Two more former Talibs, journalist Airat Vakhitov and his friend Rustam Akhmyarov were detained last Saturday, chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia Geidar Dzhemal reported on Saturday. The two former prisoners stayed at his flat near Ostozhenka street.
As Mr. Dzhemal told Kommersant, Airat Vakhitov came to Moscow on June 19 from Naberezhny Chelny to take part in the foundation session of Left Front movement. Rustam Akhmyarov followed him from Naberezhny Chelny later. Mr. Dzhemal says Airat Vakhitov earned his living by journalism. “He was a freelance correspondent of Versiya newspaper, he wrote different articles and started a book.” Mr. Dzhemal also provided him with some work “as the person who speaks English and Arabic”. Rustam Akhmyarov, according to Dzhemal, “lived here too for little time to be concerned about money as he did not have to pay the rent”. Rustam Akhmyarov kept a low profile, while Airat Vakhitov chummed up with human rights activists to become a significant figure soon. For example, he held a press conference in Moscow on June 28 where he spoke about tortures at Guantanomo. Alexander Vershbow, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, who was in Kazan at that time, was hardly pleased to hear the revelations of the former prisoner of the U.S. Army.
Afterwards, Amnesty International invited Vakhitov and Akhmyarov to London to “the round table of former prisoners of Guantanomo” due in November this year.
“It was then that the guys were first taken to the police station,” Geidar Dzhemal says. “They told me that an officer from the Moscow department of the State Security Service questioned them. He explained to Airat and Rustam that his service had nothing against them but requested to speak in London only about tortures in Guantanomo, not in Russia.” Young people agreed, all the more they were not going to mention Russia anyway, Dzhemal says.
But the story of former Talibs got an unexpected continuation on Saturday. Two police officers visited Geidar Dzhemal’s apartment where the young people stayed. They did not show any identification documents, Mr. Dzhemal claims, “but persuaded the guys to follow them threatening them with the cuffs”.
The State Security Service and police did not respond to enquiries of the chairman of the Islamic Committee who tried to find his friends. He called to the London-based lawyer who dealt with the Vakhitov vs. USA case on the compensation for the custody at Guantanomo and asked for his help with the investigation. The lawyer contacted a high-placed official at the Russian Interior Ministry who informed him that Vakhitov had already been sent to Naberezhny Chelny, while Rustam Akhmyarov – to Novosibirsk.
On Sunday, an officer on duty at the police station where the two men had been kept answered the question of Kommersant on the whereabouts of the two saying that his shift had started at 9 a.m. and “they already were not here at that time”.
“This is some kind of the investigation game,” Geidar Dzhemal deems. “I thing the kidnapping of the guys is the work of the Tatarstan police. The police will now try to make the guys assume some crimes.” The police tried to arrest Airat Vakhitov in Naberezhny Chelny, where he stayed at his family, a week ago but he managed to escape then. “They’ve decided to get him no matter what,” the head of the Islamic Committee believes.
The Interior Ministry of Tatarstan and the Interior Department of Novosibirsk would not comment yesterday.
Maxim Stepenin
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 29, 2005
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