The number of reports on kidnappings of people in Dagestan is rising with every passing year

Saturday, March 6, 2021

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The number of reports on kidnappings of people in Dagestan is rising with every passing year, said republican prosecutor Igor Tkachev at a closed meeting on this problem, which was held by Dagestan President Mukhu Aliev. “For instance while in 2002, authorities registered 81 reports, in 2006 – already over 150 and during the four months of 2007 – 71 reports on kidnapping of people,” the press service of the Dagestan president and the government quoted the prosecutor’s words in its statement. According to Tkachev, “if before 2003, people were abducted by crime families to wrest ransom, starting from 2003, authorities receive up to 50 percent of reports on abductions, connected with kidnapping of young girls for marriage”. At the same time, the prosecutor continued, “there are facts of abducting people by persons, passing themselves for officers of secret services, stationed both in Chechnya, as well as all over the North Caucasus, which aggravates the social and political situation and hamstrings the prestige of local bodies of self-government”. All in all, Dagestan authorities registered 42 cases of kidnapping people between 2001 and 2006 by persons in camouflage uniforms or introducing themselves as officers of secret services. As many as 23 criminal cases were instituted. Incidentally, out of 71 registered reports over the past four months of the current year, people in camouflage uniforms acted only in six cases as abductors. Two criminal cases were instituted in connection with the above facts. “It turned out later that the two cases of abductions were of criminal nature,” the prosecutor emphasised. The greatest number of reports on kidnapping people by persons in camouflage uniforms comes from the city of Khasavyurt and the Khasavyurt district, bordering Chechnya, where 12 criminal cases were started in connection with these facts between 2004-2006. Summing up the results of the meeting, Aliev noted that “republican law enforcement bodies are duty-bound to step up work, aimed at the earliest search for abducted people in Dagestan. He stressed their insufficient work in this sphere, pointed to the need for tough response by law enforcers and bodies of state power to every fact of abducting people in Dagestan. The republican leader noted that unsatisfactory exposure of such crimes is a serious problem, interfering with prevention of kidnappings.

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