Spain had extradited Murad Gasayev, an asylum seeker, to Russia in December 2008 because of Gasayev was accused of participation in an attack on government buildings in Ingushetia in June 2004, was released by Russian authorities without charge on August 28, 2009, after 10 months in pretrial detention.

Murad Gasayev, an ethnic Chechen, had fled to Spain after he was arrested in Ingushetia in August 2004 on suspicion of involvement in the attacks. According to Gasayev, he was tortured for three days and then released without charge.

“It’s a great relief that Gasayev is out of detention, but he should never have been there in the first place,” said Tanya Lokshina, deputy Moscow director at Human Rights Watch. “We hope that the Russian authorities will now let him rebuild his life.”

The senior investigator in charge of the case ruled on June 30, 2009, that all charges should be dropped against Gasayev, whose alibi was corroborated by five witnesses. Much of the case, and the extradition request to Spain, appears to have been based on statements made under interrogation by another detainee, Idris Matiev, naming Gasayev as a participant in the June 2004 attacks. However, Matiev later retracted this statement, alleging that he had been subjected to beatings, torture with electricity, and threats against his family.